Business Secretary Greg Clark has announced new investment into cyber security to protect businesses and protect consumers.

The UK Government have invested £70 million through the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund and investment from industry which will help businesses and consumers through increased security and protections built into digital devices and online services.

In the last 12 months forty per cent of UK businesses have experienced a cyber security breach or attack. With cyber threats constantly evolving, the best defence in the future is seen as developing innovative solutions that can work independently and protect against threats even during attacks.

Business Secretary Greg Clark said:

This could be a real step-change in computer and online security, better protecting businesses, services and consumers from cyber-attacks and bringing benefits to all sectors of the economy.  With businesses having to invest more and more in cyber security, ‘designing in’ security measures into the hardware’s fabric will not only protect our businesses and consumers but ultimately cut cybersecurity costs to businesses.

This is our modern Industrial Strategy in action.  Building on the UK’s heritage and strengths in computing and cyber security alongside the Government and industry investing together to ensure the UK capitalises on its position to become a leader in the growing markets and technologies of tomorrow.

Digital Minister Margot James said:

We want the UK to be a safer place to live and work online. We’re moving the burden away from consumers to manufacturers, so strong cyber security is built into the design of products. This funding will help us work with industry to do just that, improving the strength and resilience of hardware to better protect consumers from cyber-attacks.