Great news for cybersecurity

The UK government has announced an initiative that will see it join forces with some of the country’s hottest start-ups. They will fund the development of a start-up accelerator program that will help protect the UK from cyber attacks.

DCMS and GCHQ will partner with Telefonica’s Wayra start-up accelerator program to help UK cybersecurity start-ups grow and develop their technologies. Companies joining the scheme will get access to experts and technologies from GCHQ. This will allow them to, “expand capability, improve ideas and devise cutting-edge products to outpace current and emerging threats,” DCMS said in a statement.

This is the first step in the government’s plan to build two “world-leading innovation centers”. All of this as part of its £1.9bn National Cyber Security Programme. The first one is due to open in Cheltenham, which is where GCHQ is based, later this year. Furthermore, the second Innovation Centre will open in London at some point next year.

Both Innovation Centres will take an additional amount of £50 million of DCMS funding.