Scottish Government expands CyberScotland Partnership

The Scottish Government has added three new partners to the CyberScotland Partnership.

The three new members are the national business support service Business Gateway, the Institute of Directors Scotland and the Cyber and Fraud Hub.

The partnership is a collaborative group of national organisations, brought together by the Scottish Government’s National Cyber Resilience Unit, with the aim of raising cybersecurity awareness and building nationwide cyber resilience.

Karen Meechan, chair of the CyberScotland Partnership said: “By bringing together expertise in cybersecurity, business support and innovation, we’re strengthening our collective ability to protect, grow and empower Scotland’s businesses and citizens in an increasingly digital world. This partnership continues to demonstrate Scotland’s commitment to building a safe, resilient, and thriving economy and society.”

With these additions, the partnership now consists of 26 stakeholders, who work together to improve cyber resilience across Scotland in a coordinated and coherent way. It aims to achieve this by providing practical, tailored advice and guidance for every individual and organisation across Scotland to raise awareness of cyber threats.  

The advent of artificial intelligence systems like ChatGPT has given criminals access to resources that could potentially be used to write perfectly formed phishing emails, identify potential targets and increase their chances of a successful cyberattack.

Recent data published by GCHQ’s National Cyber Security Centre reports that the number of "highly significant" cyberattacks in the UK rose by almost 50 per cent since 2024.

In 2024 just over half of businesses and around a third of charities reported some form of cybersecurity breach or attack to their systems. This number rose to 74 per cent for large businesses, at an average cost of £10,830 per attack.

This rise in cyberattacks coincides with an update to the Scottish Government’s Strategic Framework for Cyber Security, developed by the Scottish Cyber Coordination Centre and the National Cyber Resilience Advisory Board. The refreshed framework, published last month, focuses on three core missions of cybersecurity. These are outlined in the framework as overarching missions to create a Scotland that is stronger, more resilient and capable as a cybersecurity nation by 2030.

In a joint statement, First Minister John Swinney and justice secretary Angela Constance said: “The partnership model of the CyberScotland Partnership proves the benefit of collaboration across government and the public, private and third sectors. The establishment of the CyberScotland Partnership in 2021 has maximised the collective efforts of national partners to improve the cyber resilience of Scotland’s people, businesses and organisations.”