Cyber centre Scotland delivers £3 million support boost

Cyber and Fraud Centre Scotland delivered more than £3 million of cyber resilience support and community benefit across Scotland in its first full year as a social enterprise. The total covered support for charities, community groups, social housing bodies, small businesses and fraud victims.

Since shifting to the social enterprise model in January 2025, the organisation has reinvested profits from its cyber security services into programmes designed to improve resilience and widen access to cyber careers.

Its figures show more than £1.4 million worth of free CPD-accredited cyber training was provided to more than 500 charities and social housing organisations, along with 200 small and medium-sized businesses across Scotland.

The work also included executive education, with more than 50 free places worth over £25,000 offered to senior leaders and board members in the third sector. It also delivered more than £45,000 worth of free Cyber MOTs to charities and smaller businesses.

Support following cyber incidents accounted for a significant share of the total. The organisation provided more than £500,000 of direct help to organisations dealing with cyber attacks, including assistance for more than 50 small businesses through its National Cyber Incident Response Helpline.

Those cases included ransomware, phishing and Business Email Compromise attacks. Intelligence-led interventions also prevented 10 Distributed Denial-of-Service attacks, avoiding more than £100,000 in estimated business interruption costs.

Its fraud support arm, the Cyber and Fraud Hub, helped more than 700 individuals affected by fraud, with more than £1.6 million in losses either prevented or recovered between 2024 and 2025.

Workforce pipeline

Alongside operational support, the organisation continued programmes aimed at developing cyber talent in Scotland. Through a partnership with Abertay University, it offers paid placements to ethical hacking students; 70 students have been employed through the scheme over the past six years.

According to the Centre, many of those students have gone on to longer-term roles in cyber security. It also continued its See It Be It initiative, which engaged 20 schools and more than 200 schoolgirls through conferences, virtual events and discussions with industry professionals.

The figures come as public, private and third sector organisations face growing pressure to demonstrate cyber security standards in procurement, partnerships and supply chain relationships, while cyber threats continue to rise.

Jude McCorry, Chief Executive Officer of Cyber and Fraud Centre Scotland, outlined the organisation's approach.

"As Scotland's only cyber security social enterprise, our purpose goes beyond service delivery. We reinvest our time, expertise and resources to support the communities we serve, helping ensure organisations are not priced out of protection and that cyber resilience is accessible to all.

"With organisations under increasing pressure to demonstrate strong cyber security standards to unlock business opportunities, cyber resilience is now as much an economic imperative as a security one.

"We are incredibly proud of the impact achieved in our first year as a social enterprise and grateful to everyone who has contributed. As the Centre continues to grow, so too does our ability to give back. Over the coming year, we'll continue expanding our programmes, with a particular focus on evolving our Incident Response Helpline to provide ongoing, rather than just incident-specific, advice. We also remain committed to investing in programmes like See It Be It to help shape the future cyber workforce," McCorry said.

Partner views

Gerry Britton, Chief Executive Officer of Street Soccer, described the support his organisation received.

"As a charitable organisation, we needed a partner that understood both our resource constraints and the importance of protecting sensitive data. The team at Cyber and Fraud Centre Scotland provided us with a clear, prioritised view of our vulnerabilities, allowing us to focus on the areas that mattered most. Their proactive, tailored advice has helped us strengthen our cyber resilience step by step, and the depth of their testing and ongoing support has been a gamechanger," Britton said.

Abertay University also highlighted the impact of its long-running partnership with the Centre.

"Abertay University's long-standing relationship with Cyber and Fraud Centre Scotland has significantly enhanced student employability while strengthening our reputation across the UK cyber security ecosystem. The collaboration gives students a unique and invaluable opportunity to apply their technical skillset in real-world settings and make a genuine difference to SMEs' cyber resilience. As a founding partner of the cyberQuarter, Abertay's flagship cyber security research and development centre, Cyber and Fraud Centre Scotland also continues to play a vital role in shaping our research, knowledge exchange and industry engagement through its expertise and sector insight," Coull said.