By Ross Foley, Cyber Security Director, PwC Scotland

CYBER security has become one of the major societal challenges of the internet age. What was once the domain of IT and security professionals has become a board-level business issue, a challenge which each of us face on a daily basis.

The paradigm shift we have experienced in terms of the threat must now be mirrored in the scale of our response: we must give all people the skills to protect themselves, and ultimately ensure the cyber resilience of UK plc.

I was enthused by the message of collaboration and teamwork that came across loud and clear from key figures from both the public and private sectors at the recent Cyber UK event in Glasgow. In his opening address to delegates Ciaran Martin, CEO of NCSC, the Government agency responsible for cyber security, described the event as the coming together of the “team” tasked with defending the UK in cyberspace.

Working as a team, there are three equally important challenges we must address in order if we are to achieve the Scottish Government’s aim of becoming a “world leader” in cyber resilience, and create an environment where cyber security simply becomes embedded in our culture, both at home and in the workplace:

1) Provide all citizens with a baseline knowledge of the tools and techniques they can use to protect themselves in cyberspace.

2) Create a sustainable and broad pipeline of cyber security talent.

3) Foster a culture of collaboration between government, our security services and the private sector.

An effective first step is to recognise that cyber security is now simply a fundamental life skill for children of the internet age, one which goes hand in hand with the road and personal safety lessons that we all remember from our own school days. For businesses, cyber security must become as fundamental as health and safety has now become. And at a public sector level, it must sit among others deemed critical to a functioning society, such as healthcare or the emergency services.

It’s also important to recognise that the next generation of cyber defenders are not just security managers or coders, but everyone from the future CEOs to any worker who views, holds or processes information. Technology, data and electronic communications are so intrinsically linked to our lives that cyber security begins and ends with every employee of an organisation or every citizen of a state. Ultimately, the more we build security into the culture of our citizens, the more cyber-resilient our organisations will be.

The work of organisations such as Skills Development Scotland are fundamental to addressing these challenges, driving a sustainable pipeline of cyber security professionals. However, while we have a steady stream of technical graduates from highly-respected cyber security degree programmes at both Abertay and Napier Universities it is imperative that we remember that security requires a broad range of technical and non-technical disciplines.

The cyber security industry has also long been criticised for its lack of diversity, with NCSC commenting in 2017 that we needed “a much more diverse workforce” in order to combat ever more sophisticated cyber threats. Driving greater diversity of gender, ethnicity, background and thought, are all vital aspects of creating a cyber-resilient workforce.

While the challenge may seem daunting, it is clear that the appetite to drive change is real. All cyber security professionals hold a duty to facilitate this agenda so I look forward to further opportunities for our community to come together and support the cross-sector conversation and collaboration required to build the foundations of our future cyber resilience.