Introducing the Cyber Catalyst Network

With a mere 6 sleeps to go until Cyber Scotland Week kicks off in earnest, it is now time to shine the spotlight on the third sector catalyst network members who are pulling out all the stops to make sure #CSW2021 is epic for the voluntary and community sector in Scotland.

To set the scene, the cyber catalysts network is made up of organisations who have committed at Board level to act as ambassadors for cyber education and support the Scottish Government in its delivery of its action plans. There are three networks – a private, public and third sector one and details of the members can be found in this list of working groups.

Now, you could accuse me of being biased (spoiler alert - I am!) but I am in awe of what the members of “MY” ;-) group do to support cyber resilience in the third sector – they certainly make my job a lot easier and their successes in 2020 can be read about in this annual report.

During Cyber Scotland Week, several have stepped up to the plate to deliver different initiatives. You may have read in my previous blog about the brilliant work by SightScotland which saw the production of Get Safe Online messaging made into a braille format. Also utilising alternative formats, we have some excellent “piece to camera” safety messages recorded by the Scottish Sports Association by the governing bodies of sport. This is coupled with an event for the Chairs of Governing Bodies and a “celebration” of the cyber work they have undertaken to date, at which the Minister for Public Health, Sport and Wellbeing is rumored to be attending. Awesome stuff!

Elsewhere we have some other great events targeted at specific audiences. ACOSVO are running a session titled Protecting your organisation and its beneficiaries in association with David Ferbrache OBE, who is the Chair of the National Cyber Resilience Advisory Board (NCRAB). This is designed for senior leaders, chief officers and vice chairs and will be held on Tuesday 23rd February at 10am-11am.

Also designed with a specific audience in mind, we have the Scottish Federation of Housing (SFHA) holding the third of their virtual events series on Thursday 25th February. This all-day event, titled “Housing now, Housing’s Future” has a theme of Digital Empowerment and Leadership. It features guest appearances from Anthony Morris, Cyber Resilience Unit Third Sector Lead with the Scottish Government, and Declan Doyle, Chief Ethical Hacker at the Scottish Business Resilience Centre.

Other catalyst members are taking to the stage – the lovely people at Learning Link are hosting one of their regular network meetings for their adult learner audience, with a cyber slant. The ALLIANCE are undertaking in-house staff training (as are SCVO). The Coalition of Care and Support Providers in Scotland (CCPS) are running a public event on cyber basics, in association with Lead Scotland, designed for an audience of not-for-profit providers of social care and support. Many of the other catalyst partners are participating by regular amplification of the social media messaging shared by the team at Cyber Scotland Week.

All in all, as Cyber Scotland Week heads towards the start of its third year with 120+ events on the website, I am delighted with the engagement of both the third sector in general and especially the fab folk who make up the Cyber Catalyst Network for the third sector.

Cake all round next time we meet, guys! ;-) :D