Cyber Challenges for Small and Medium-size Businesses

While ensuring cyber security is important for organisations of all sizes, it often poses particular challenges for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs). Smaller businesses can face constraints in terms of time, skills and resources, which can in turn lead to difficulties in recognising the issues, understanding their own needs, and being able to follow good practice. These challenges have provided the motivation for the Cyber Security Communities of Support (CyCOS) project; a 2.5-year collaboration between three UK universities (Nottingham, Queen Mary and Kent), supported by a range of industry, government and professional partners including ISC2. The early phases of the CyCOS research have been investigating the current challenges faced by SMEs, involving extensive data collected from SMEs themselves and those already providing them with support. Although a wealth of information is available, there are still hurdles to overcome in terms of finding it, understanding it and following it. More recently, the project has been tracking what happens from SME and provider perspectives during the associated ‘support journeys’, and it is working towards the design and trialling of a new approach in which SMEs and advisors are brought together in a community-based context. These communities will also offer a further channel through which to socialise and demystify cyber security for the SME audience, based upon collaboration between organisations in the same region, sector or supply chain. In this session, Prof. Steven Furnell will discuss the issue of cyber security for SMEs, and highlight some of the key findings from the CyCOS work to date. He will also explain more about the proposed Communities of Support, including means by which interested attendees can get involved.