Sunderland kickstarts event to help shape the cyber security landscape

It was all ears on Sunderland as the city kicked off the first of a host of listening events to better understand the cyber security landscape across the North.

Led by the Northern Cyber Clusters Collaboration project and alongside an online survey, the listening events are running across the North of England with the aim of gathering insight to support the facilitation of a stronger force on the ground for cyber security in the regions.

Together the cluster, which is built-up of CyberNorth, North West Cyber Security Cluster and Yorkshire Cyber Security Cluster have a clear mission to facilitate and level up the divide.

The research project aims to gain a better understanding of cyber security assets and key cyber security players in the Northern regions, and to develop ways for them to work together to increase visibility and to elevate growth and opportunities in the sector.

A range of guests from academia, innovation to cyber business took part in the event which was hosted at the Hilton Garden Inn, Sunderland and facilitated by Danielle Phillips, director and principal consultant at Inside Out Communications Consulting.

Danielle said: “It was great to launch the listening events in Sunderland, the openness and transparency across the industries was so good to see and there was so much insight gathered, with the thirst for further collaboration so prevalent within just a couple of hours.

“The events are continuing across the North including Manchester, Liverpool and Leeds and it’s a great chance to really shape the sector. The findings will support in the making of national recommendations and I’m really excited to see the outcome of this project.”

Through the collaboration the team are seeking to understand what can be done to create strong ties, develop relationships and nurture collaboration that will see individuals, organisations, communities, sectors and the economy throughout the North of England benefit.

Cyber security is a necessity across every business and the high-growth sector is on an upward trajectory with annual cyber security revenue in the UK now estimated at a huge £10.1bn, an increase of 14 per cent in the last year alone.

However, when it comes to the North/South divide the statistics are a cybercrime in themselves with recent statistics citing cyber security investment in the southern regions accumulated to £982.4m, falling very short was the Northern regions with just £8m investment.

By Mark Adair – Correspondent, Bdaily

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