About an hour ago, our CEO Stuart Murdoch was welcomed into the Cyber Growth Partnership (CGP) Board; an advisory group providing strategic advice to Ministers. The CGP is a joint initiative between industry, academia and government, aimed at boosting the UK’s global market position in cyber security products and services. The main UK ICT trade association, techUK, coordinates business and academic involvement in the CGP, while the high-level board, co-chaired by Ed Vaizey, Minister for Culture and the Digital Economy and Gavin Patterson, BT CEO, provides governance.
Stuart’s inclusion on this Board, as well as our CTO John Atherton sitting on Liam Maxwell’s Open Standards Board, is an incredible achievement for such a small company, and we aren’t afraid to say that!
Surevine, as an SME ourselves, champion the value that small companies can bring to the UK Government. We may have to shout a little louder to be heard, but we have something worth shouting about!
And, we are being heard. Over the last year we have been invited along on three trips to Washington. The first, a UKTI Security Sector market visit, next up was an invitation for us to talk at SINET, and most recently we were one of the 12 UK companies selected to join the Prime Minister David Cameron on a trade mission to promote further cyber-security collaboration between the UK and US, including improving the flow of information between the US and UK about cyber threats.
“The UK is already leading the way in cyber security and this government is committed to ensuring it continues to be a leader in this multi-billion dollar industry. That’s why on this trip I’m showcasing some of the leading UK cyber security companies including Surevine from London who will have the chance to meet investors and build their business in the US.”
Prime Minister, David Cameron
Our next trip will see us joining UKTI DSO on their mission to San Francisco, where we will exhibit at RSA together with officials from wider UK Government and a handful of other UK based cyber security companies.
In addition to our existing secure collaboration technology, used by the NCSC and across UK central government, we are aiming to use RSA to launch a secure from the ground up, federated collaboration platform, to meet the most demanding security requirements.
In February 2015, President Obama issued an executive order that companies, nonprofits and government departments must be able to share information relating to cyber-security risks.
The order aims to “encourage the voluntary formation of such organisations”, and makes clear that “information sharing must be conducted in a manner that protects the privacy and civil liberties of individuals, that preserves business confidentiality, that safeguards the information being shared, and that protects the ability of the Government to detect, investigate, prevent, and respond to cyber threats…”
Having supported CERT-UK (whose functions were taken over by the NCSC) to create just such an environment, Surevine believes it is well-positioned to help US groups create secure information-sharing networks across the Atlantic.
And so our journey to America begins…