The UK Government’s £20m for cyber security lessons to be offered in schools has been welcomed by the Institute of Risk Management (IRM). The Department for Culture, Media and Sport recently announced that the learning will be designed to fit around pupils’ current courses and exams. Up to 5,700 pupils aged 14 and over will spend up to four hours a week on the subject in a five-year pilot.
IRM Chair, Nicola Crawford, FIRM, Managing Director, I-Risk says: “The IRM applauds the government’s initiative to offer cyber security lessons in schools in England. Preparing Britain for the future challenges posed by cyber security threats is an important step in the right direction. We live in an increasingly networked world, from personal banking to government infrastructure. Protecting those networks is no longer optional – the internet of things means enterprise wide risk management, including cyber security policy, has never been more important.
“Cyber risk is now firmly at the top of the business agenda globally as high-profile breaches raise fears that hack attacks and other security failures could endanger the global economy. Today organisations are increasingly recognising that they are insufficiently prepared to protect themselves against cyberattacks. And as Robert Hannigan, Director of GCHQ recently revealed that the UK is hit by 60 major cyber raids a month – it’s not surprising that governments and businesses are searching for better cyber defense strategies.”
IRM spokesperson Alexander Larsen, FIRM, President of Baldwin Global Risk Services Ltd agrees: “Cyber risk has been a growing threat in the last few years and it doesn’t look like 2017 will be any different. A recent report claimed that the risk in 2016 was four times higher than in 2015. Indeed, with technological advances allowing us to take further steps towards a cashless society, companies moving towards a paper free business model (one recently completed hospital in Qatar is virtually paperless), and goods such as cars, fridges, televisions and the home moving to complete automation or controlled by phone, there is more for hackers to target than ever before.
The IRM adds that it has recently developed a course on managing cyber risk; https://www.theirm.org/training/all-courses/strategic-insights-into-cyber-risk.aspx.
