Innovation Vouchers worth £5,000 can now be obtained by businesses to pay for an external expert to help them with their cyber security.
The vouchers can be used to pay for an external expert to give your business guidance on protecting against cyber attacks and potential accreditation to Cyber Essentials. Innovate UK and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport are equally investing £500,000 in the new scheme.
How Cyber Essentials certification works
The Cyber Essentials programme can help your organisation establish a safe and secure platform for your business activities. You can also get accreditation to show that you’ve taken these precautions, which since 2014, all suppliers handling certain sensitive and personal information need.
There are two levels of certification available:
- Cyber Essentials – the organisation responds to a questionnaire, which an external assessor then reviews
- Cyber Essentials PLUS – an external assessor carries out tests of the organisation’s IT security systems
Cyber Security Innovation Voucher competition
Innovate UK will award Cyber Security Innovation Vouchers once every 3 months from October 2015 to eligible applicants.
To qualify for a Cyber Security Innovation Voucher your organisation must:
- be starting up or running a micro, small or medium-sized UK business
- have not worked with this expert before
- need help with something that’s a real challenge for their business, not just a small improvement or change
- have not had an Innovation Voucher from Innovate UK or the Technology Strategy Board before
Source: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/cyber-security-apply-now-for-business-funding#history
