Intelligent CIO Europe Issue 53 | Page 78

INTELLIGENT BRANDS // Enterprise Security

Aston University to work with EY on cybersecurity research to support government strategy

Cybersecurity experts at Aston University will work with the government to support its national cybersecurity strategy by mapping blind spots in the UK ’ s regional cybersecurity systems .

The Cyber Security Innovation ( CSI ) Centre at Aston University will work with EY Cyber Security Consulting on the £ 180,000 project for the Department for Digital , Culture , Media and Sport ( DCMS ) to research and map the UK cybersecurity ecosystem . mechanisms from across the UK , analysis will be conducted to provide a region-by-region basis of practices involved ,” said Dr Anitha Chinnaswamy , Lecturer in Cybersecurity Management at the CSI Centre at Aston Business School .
“ The mapping of the cybersecurity landscape will also enable the enhancement of skills and diversity across the cybersecurity sector . The diversity in the cybersecurity market lags other digital sectors , with the cyber-workforce consisting of only 15 % females , 16 % ethnic minority backgrounds and 9 % neurodivergent . The results of this project will be an important contribution for the government to foster the growth of a sustainable , innovative and internationally competitive cyber and information security sector .” p
The project will consider the current environment , conditions and interventions that exist to influence or affect companies providing cybersecurity products , services or solutions to support and contribute to the development and growth of cybersecurity businesses in the UK .
This research aims to provide the DCMS with robust evidence of a region-by-region picture of where public , private , academic and industry support mechanisms are in place and to identify service and geographical gaps in their provision .
It comes after the CSI Centre helped launch the UK government ’ s National Cyber Strategy 2022 in Birmingham at a special event in December 2021 , for which Aston University ’ s Professor of Cybersecurity Management , Vladlena Benson , was an instrumental member of the organising committee . The current project will enable the strategy implementation to support the UK government ’ s ambition to grow innovation and academic research in cybersecurity .
“ From the datasets collected that include different cybersecurity businesses , incubators , accelerators , clusters , academic centres of excellence and other different
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