The Scottish Government has re-awarded the Scottish Business Resilience Centre (SBRC) the contract to run the National Cyber Security Centre’s (NCSC) ‘Exercise in a Box’ programme.
Under a £500,000 deal the SBRC will provide cyber resilience training to public and third sector organisations for the third year running.
This will include an extended programme of online and in-person workshops for teams in the public sector, healthcare, housing and social care, along with a range of new scenarios including third party software compromise and threatened leak of sensitive data.
Previous scenarios have included supply chain cyber vulnerabilities, the implication of phishing incidents resulting in ransomware attacks, and the cyber impact of working from home.
In addition, the SBRC urged more third sector organisations to attend an Exercise in a Box workshop when they begin soon. Events will take place in Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Highlands and Islands, Inverness and the Scottish Borders
The Scottish Government said the programme has already upskilled 450 organisations across Scotland since it was launched in 2020.
Ongoing pressure
Jude McCorry, CEO of the SBRC, said: “There is no denying that the ongoing pressure facing everyone from a cyber perspective has been relentless in recent years. Just as we see one organisation recover from the grips of a cyber incident, another is targeted.
“It is also now believed that cyber criminals have targeted more than three-quarters of public sector organisations and, closer to home, we have seen this play out with large scale attacks on SEPA (Scottish Environment Protection Agency) and SAMH (Scottish Association for Mental Health).
“We don’t want to see more Scottish organisations fall victim to these attacks and that is why upskilling and awareness programmes like Exercise in a Box continue to be so vital.
“I implore anyone who believes they could benefit from becoming more cyber resilient to attend an event or our online taster session to hear more. We are grateful to the Scottish Government to allow the SBRC to prepare more Scottish organisations for a cyber secure future.”
