Editorial

Aston University and EY mapping cybersecurity landscape to support government strategy

The research will map blind spots within the UK’s regional security innovation systems

Posted 3 March 2022 by Christine Horton


Cybersecurity experts at Aston University are helping the government’s National Cybersecurity Strategy by mapping blind spots in the UK’s regional cybersecurity systems.

CSI centre Anitha Chinnaswamy (L) and Vladlena Benson (R)

The Cybersecurity Innovation (CSI) Centre at Aston University will work with EY Cybersecurity Consulting on the £180,000 project for the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) to research and map the UK cybersecurity ecosystem.

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.

The aim of the research is 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 last December, for which Aston University professor of cybersecurity management, Vladlena Benson, was an instrumental member of the organising committee. The university says the current project will enable the strategy implementation to support the UK government’s ambition to grow innovation and academic research in cyber.

Mapping the cybersecurity landscape

“From the datasets collected that includes different cybersecurity businesses, incubators, accelerators, clusters, academic centres of excellence and other different 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 cybersecurity market lags other digital sectors, with the cyber workforce consisting of only 15 percent females, 16 percent ethnic minority backgrounds and nine percent 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.”