It was all ears on Sunderland as the city kicked off the first of a host of listening events to better understand the cybersecurity 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 cybersecurity 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 cybersecurity assets and key cybersecurity 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.
One of the attendees at the Sunderland event included Net-Defence. A cybersecurity, IT and telephony provider, part of the Ogilvie Group, its solutions tackle risks and emerging threats, helping customers to reduce their exposure and improve their operations and resilience.
Dan Step, commercial account manager at Net-Defence, said: “I was delighted to be part of the round-table discussion organised via the newly formed Northern Cyber Clusters Collaboration project. It’s vital to know what’s happening across the region to support further education around cyber security, for both personal and company benefit.
“Collaboration and relationship building are key, and an understanding of the wider cybersecurity market as a whole is vital to enhance the support we offer our clients. I look forward to hearing further updates as the research progresses.”
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 £10.1 billion, an increase of 14% in the past year alone. However, recent statistics show that cybersecurity investment in the southern regions accumulated to £982.4 million, yet the figure was just £8 million in the Northern regions.
The cybersecurity threat and landscape is always evolving, and attacks are becoming more prevalent and sophisticated, with data breaches and hacks affecting everything from retail to healthcare to finance. Recent research cited that cyber attacks on UK organisations surged by 77% in 2002, with the UK education sector alone seeing a 257% increase in attacks compared with 2021.
The cybersecurity industry continues to be one of the fastest growing economies in the UK, and in the North, there is the drive to grow the sector across the regions and to position the North as a great and safe place to access cybersecurity expertise, with a host of key organisations such as NEBRC, universities, mayoral authorities, space and satellite applications and Offshore Renewables Energy Centre pushing a united profile.
Key players in the Northern regions include Waterstons (one of just 21 organisations to receive Certified Cyber Consultancy status from the UK National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), Accenture and Sapphire, which shows the capacity and opportunity to further develop and increase visibility of the sector in the North.
