The Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations is the membership organisation for Scotland's charities, voluntary organisations and social enterprises. Charity registered in Scotland SC003558. Registered office Mansfield Traquair Centre, 15 Mansfield Place, Edinburgh EH3 6BB.
Charities come together to renew their focus on cyber resilience
On the 28th of February, as part of CyberScotland Week 2024, ScotlandIS and SCVO hosted a free cyber resilience conference for over 100 representatives from across the third sector. The aim of the day was to support organisations in understanding more about cyber resilience, why it is important to everyone and highlighting resources and support to help organisations on their journey to becoming more cyber resilient.
The event was designed specifically for the third sector with real-world insights from the UK’s National Cyber Security Centre, some of our Scottish charities as well as industry experts, who led a variety of interactive workshops highlighting simple steps that can help reduce and manage cyber risk.
Angela Constance MSP, Cabinet Secretary for Justice and Home Affairs, spoke about the Scottish Government’s commitment to supporting and working with the third sector to be more resilient:
“I am pleased to announce that the Scottish Government is providing funding to SCVO to work in partnership with other third sector organisations to devise and implement a work programme that builds cyber resilience effectively across the sector. As part of this support, I am delighted that Alison Brogan has been appointed as the Third Sector Cyber Resilience Co-ordinator based within SCVO. Alison has already established a new Third Sector Cyber Resilience Working Group which will help to shape the development of the work programme.”
Some highlights were the fireside chat facilitated by SCVO's Director of Development, David McNeill. His discussion with John Stoner (Information Systems Manager, SAMH) and Ade Worley (Head of Information Technology, RZSS) about the types of cyber attacks they've seen, their impact and key lessons learned was a really engaging conversation.
Robbie Ross, Chief Security Officer Converged Communications, went on to speak about the importance of building a robust security culture within your organisation - where security is simply embedded within day-to-day operations. This was then brought to life by Edinburgh Remakery CEO, Elaine Brown, who explained the steps they’ve taken to make this happen within their charity.
Eddie Nisbet, YouthLink Scotland Senior Digital & Communications Officer and member of the Third Sector Cyber Resilience Working Group, shared his thoughts on the day:
“I attended the conference in search of information and resources that could support the development of our cyber incident response strategy. The range of key speakers and topics covered, particularly in the panel discussion, provided numerous invaluable insights into building a robust cyber strategy that I've been able to cherry pick and adapt within our own strategic thinking. A hugely rewarding day overall.”
If you’d like to learn more about how to prioritise cyber risk and/or keep up-to-date with new initiatives and opportunities in this space, check out SCVO’s free online guidance.
