In these digital times, any business needs tools, tricks and training to help keep its data and its clients’ data safe. Whether it’s an investment app or Facebook, companies have an obligation to protect the data they amass to the best of their abilities.
However, allocating resources to manage in-house security training and solutions is costly. That’s where the firms like the ones we’ll be talking about today come in.
Scotland has the makings of a cybersecurity powerhouse, and, if reports are to be believed, is likely to only get stronger as time marches on.
According to non-profit organisation ScotlandIS, the nation’s cyber cluster includes around 230 cybersecurity companies, nearly half of which are Scottish founded companies, or a firm headquartered in the country.
The names below are just a sampling of the firms out there. From training to apps to solutions, these seven organisations are pushing the envelope of how companies keep their data safe.
i-confidential
This information security consultant firm got its start in 2008 and has slowly built a solid name for itself. On the Edinburgh-based company’s website it says current or former clients include “two of the UK’s top five insurers”, “11 FTSE 100 companies” and “three of the UK’s top five banks”, though it doesn’t mention any names.
A month ago it brought in a new Senior Resourcing Partner and is now looking for a Resourcing Partner. The firm is also a service supplier for the G-Cloud 12 Framework.
In 2018, the firm’s three owners sold a controlling interest in the company to an employee ownership trust, making it one of the few employee-owned companies we’ve covered in these lists.
ID Cyber Solutions
Coming out of Glasgow, ID Cyber Solutions hosts a variety of training services to help companies protect themselves from “competitors, employees, counterfeiters, fraudsters or other sources”.
Outright hostility toward a company’s own employees in that statement aside, ID Cyber Solutions operates much like any security training firm, offering bootcamps, seminars and classes to help businesses obtain a Cyber Essentials certification.
The company was founded in 2015 and won the Best Startup award in the 2017 Scottish Cyber Awards.
Two months ago, and according to LinkedIn, the firm announced it was working behind the scenes on “many exciting things”, including its new office space that features an in-house cyber training centre.
Lupovis
Defence and good security practices are only part of the battle in cybersecurity. Sometimes, you need to go on the offensive to beat hackers and the like.
Lupovis’s aim is to provide a weapon in that fight, allowing companies to put decoys on their networks to lure malicious actors into the light.
A spin-out of the University of Strathclyde, the young company’s future is looking bright, and investors agree, providing Lupovis with €700,000 (£587,000) in funding for its product in early November 2021.
The company was also a finalist for the Best Cyber Startup award in the 2021 Scottish Cyber Awards.
MemCrypt
Ransomware can be a major issue for businesses both big and small, as the 2021 incident involving Colonial Pipeline demonstrates.
Spinning out of Edinburgh Napier University’s School of Computing, MemCrypt focuses on creating cryptographic solutions to help companies deal with ransomware attacks from any source.
MemCrypt is one of the youngest firms on this list, being barely over a year old, and has yet to list any products on its website as of this writing, though descriptions of its products elsewhere note that it is designed to detect ransomware and recover already-encrypted files. The relative youth of the company did not, however, stop it from taking home the Leading Light Innovation award at the 2021 Scottish Cyber Awards.
PolyDigi Tech
From passwords to multi-factor authentication, user identification is a major aspect of cybersecurity, and companies like PolyDigi Tech strive to help make that process easier for companies.
The Edinburgh-based firm was set up in 2019 and offers a suite of cybersecurity software, including a mobile-focused multi-factor authentication solution. However, its “revolutionary” product is a biometric authentication solution.
The ethical integrity of biometric authentications are still being debated by experts today, particularly how it affects privacy and inclusivity. Regardless, PolyDigi Tech has been a rising start-up in the Scottish cybersecurity scene. Most recently, it took the Best Cyber Startup prize in the 2021 Scottish Cyber Awards.
Quorum Cyber
Providing both training services and cybersecurity tech solutions, this Edinburgh-born firm is another rising startup in the Scottish scene. Notably, the NHS utilised Quorum Cyber’s services during the pandemic to shore up its digital defences. It also has a partnership with Microsoft as a member of its Microsoft Intelligent Security Association.
The company had a great year in 2020. On top of the aforementioned work with the NHS, it managed to raise £2.7 million in investments.
Quorum Cyber is currently looking for a Principal Security Consultant.
TechForce Cyber
Hailing from the city of Aberdeen, TechForce Cyber was founded in 2017 and is dedicated to helping companies train their employees in cybersecurity best practices. Its services include cyber risk assessment, security awareness training and vulnerability management.
The public sector seems to like the firm, as it acquired £370,000 in contracts from them at the beginning of 2021.
Notable TechForce Cyber clients include DC Thomson and the Crown Prosecution Service.
In our previous series we focused on tech action in Northern Ireland.
The features looked at Northern Irish companies in cybersecurity, data, fintech, insurtech and tech.
