Scotland's Economy

Scotland’s first Cyber Resilience Strategy

November 20, 2015 by Mandy Haeburn-Little No Comments | Category Uncategorized

Wherever there’s a yin there’s a yang. It’s always been that way with new business opportunity and so it is with the digital opportunity now open to Scotland and the counter balance of cyber threat.

The good news is that digital opportunity, if grasped well and with an understanding of what that threat looks like, will transform Scotland’s ability to attract new investors and business and will support delivery of Scotland’s proud history for innovation. And we all want to see that reputation continue and flourish.

Understanding digital opportunity is core to this. Pursuing innovation with resilience and security in mind will be the key to realizing these benefits. So now, as never before, we need to continue and develop the unique and outstanding skills that Scotland is already producing in this area, whether it be gamification, or the excellent digital forensic work and the cyber Academy at Napier, the ethical hacking students in Abertay or the similar strong graduates at the University of Glasgow, Glasgow Caledonian or St Andrews amongst others. The level of skills being produced right now is what will differentiate Scotland’s innovation moving forward. If these skills move on elsewhere, then we lose the opportunity to build and grow a genuinely resilient and robust business community for Scotland.

But over and above innovation, with the launch of Scotland’s first  Cyber Resilience Strategy we have the chance to consider and support the most vulnerable in our society and that surely is a major part of our DNA. Making digital public services available to those who need them and making them secure, easy to understand and use is vital. Whether it be your health records, your appointments, your services from your local authority – having straightforward, efficient systems and helping others to use them should remove the need for long queues and missed times.

The first important action is to recognise the potential risk and become more cyber aware. Research has shown that about 80% of cybercrime can be prevented by simply getting the basics right. This can be as simple as choosing, using and protecting your passwords carefully, and using a different one for every account, to always having up-to-date internet security software. It’s not all about high level controls and buying expensive systems and professional advice, it’s about treating cyber resilience as an organisations would health and safety.

As a citizen of Scotland, your journey of the future will be a very different one to that of the past . It will mean we all need to learn new skills. There is no getting away from that. Digital and cyber resilience skills will become a greater priority for anyone with customers or delivering a service but it will also be a priority for all of us. The creation of a resilient and safe digital Scotland is now clearly within our grasp and that is a great and unique opportunity.

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