The centre will be run by Plexal in the East London Innovation Centre located on the fast-growing Here East digital and creative campus, developed and owned by Delancey’s DV4 fund, and delivered in partnership with Deloitte’s cyber team and the Centre for Secure Information Technologies (CSIT) at Queen’s University Belfast.
The opening of the centre coincides with specially commissioned research by LORCA that reveals more than half of large businesses have suffered a cyber-security attack in the last 12 months, and almost a quarter of UK businesses (24%) don’t think their cyber security solutions are fit for their needs.
As the business threat of cybercrime increases, the new study of 500 UK C-level executives also reveals that more than half (53%) do not have a formalised protocol in place for cyber-attacks.
Most breaches or attacks are via fraudulent emails – such as attempting to coax staff into revealing passwords or financial information or opening dangerous attachments.
Despite this, the majority of businesses (70%) surveyed said they haven’t purchased a cyber security solution from a start-up company or SME in the last two years.
The reasons given as to why they might not seek external specialist help depends on the size of the company: the largest proportion of SMEs (37%) chose awareness of the solution as the key challenge when implementing a new and innovative solution to cyber threats. This contrasts to larger companies surveyed, where integration concerns were considered the most significant barrier (47%).
LORCA will help some of the UK’s leading cyber security businesses, across all stages of growth, address commercial challenges and achieve greater impact with their solutions.
The government-funded centre for cyber security innovation is intended to help position the UK as a global leader in the growing field of cyber security and keep the nation safe from online threats.
Shortly, it will be announcing ten organisations that will make up its first cohort, including B-Secur which specialises in using biometric heartbeat solutions as a means of authentication, as well as for health and wellbeing purposes.