Tackling the shortage of cyber security skills tops the agenda for the Security Serious Week, an industry initiative aimed at helping organizations become more security savvy.

The third annual Security Serious Week from 2 October 2017 will feature an entirely virtual summit, accessible to anyone who is online.

The summit consists of webinars on the subject of building awareness and bridging the cyber skills gap through creativity and diversity.

The organizers have brought together professors, scholars, entrepreneurs, researchers, incubators, journalists, practitioners and visionaries to discuss the issues surrounding the cyber skills gap in the UK.

Five panel-style webinars throughout the week will look at how companies can take advantage of UK schemes and programs to make it a thriving cyber security hub, at artificial intelligence, and at how to think outside the traditional route to a cyber career to get all of the right people in place to avoid becoming the next subject of a major attack.

“The essence of the summit is to encourage companies and individuals to think about their security – so that the UK becomes a safer more educated place to do business,” said Yvonne Eskenzi, founder of Security Serious Week and co-founder of Eskenzi PR.

“It is no secret that the UK is hugely under-resourced when it comes to having skilled people to protect our UK businesses, especially with the increasing and constant onslaught of cyber attacks thwarting businesses. This year’s theme aims to get people thinking outside of the box about how they address the cyber skills gap.”

Security Serious Week coincides with European Cyber Security Awareness Month and is supported by industry experts, who are offering their time and free advice to help UK companies protect, as well as educate, themselves.

Panelists represent some of the industry’s best and brightest minds, including Adrian Davis of (ISC)², Quentyn Taylor from Canon and Crest’s Ian Glover to Emma Jones from the National Autistic Society, Shan Lee, CISO of Transferwise, and Andy Jones, professor at Hertfordshire University.

Data breaches and cyber-attacks affect all UK businesses and this year is all about people. The summit kicks off with a session on 2 October to set the scene and look at some ways UK organizations can tackle the skills gap as well as the potential challenges of Brexit, chaired by Warwick Ashford, security editor of Computer Weekly.

Other session topics include incentives that make the UK an ideal cyber security hub, chaired by Sarb Sembhi of Virtually Informed; artificial intelligence, chaired by Pete Warren from Future Intelligence;  creative employment, chaired by Vicki Gavin, CISO of the Economist Group; and neuro diversity, chaired by Brian Higgins from (ISC)².

Anyone can join these sessions or watch them later on demand by registering on the Security Serious website.

In addition, Security Serious Week will host the second annual Security Serious Unsung Heroes Awards in London on the evening of 3 October. The event honors the unsung heroes who work tirelessly to avert disasters from attacks against our critical national infrastructure, defend their networks from the daily onslaught of breaches and highlight the cyber pitfalls to educate everyone.

The Security Serious Unsung Heroes Awards are made possible with the support of Mimecast, Gigamon, GSK, SE Labs, Canon, Eskenzi PR, Lastline, (ISC)², Crest, Barracuda, Smile on Fridays, 1E, Firemon, It Security Guru, Corero and the Charities Security Forum.

via:  computerweekly