# 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. ![Anna Fowlie and Alison Brogan welcomed around 100 participants to the conference](https://files.scvo.scot/2024/04/Conf.jpg) 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. ![Ade Worlley and John Stoner in conversation with David McNeill](https://files.scvo.scot/2024/04/Image-1-large.jpg) 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](https://scvo.scot/support/digital/cyber-resilience). --- ## About SCVO SCVO (Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations) is the national membership organisation for Scotland's voluntary sector. Our role is to champion the role of voluntary organisations in Scotland and to support them to do work that has a positive impact. SCVO supports members and the wider voluntary sector with all aspects of setting up and running a voluntary organisation. SCVO represents the needs and concerns of the voluntary sector to the Scottish government in Holyrood and UK government and Westminster. Through our learning and events programme SCVO offers training and development opportunities to the sector. Members access an extensive membership benefits package including specialist, in-depth, 1-to-1 guidance from our Information Services team and from professional service partners. Access to exclusive membership networks (including comms, employers, governance and policy) supports members to grow their connections, stay up to date, exchange ideas and views with peers, and learn through tailored learning opportunities. SCVO members enjoy free access to Funding Scotland Premium to stay on top of funding opportunities to support their organisation’s financial resilience. Discounts and savings on SCVO products and services (including our HR service, managed IT support, payroll service and events and training) and partner offers provide members with support to allow them to focus on delivering their organisation’s goals. Further SCVO products and services include [extensive digital support](https://scvo.scot/support/digital), a climate action resource [Growing Climate Confidence](https://climateconfident.scot), a voluntary sector publication [Third Force News](https://tfn.scot) and a voluntary sector jobs and recruitment service [Goodmoves](https://goodmoves.org). For more information on SCVO membership, visit [SCVO membership](https://scvo.scot/membership)