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The national science agency has developed a free 10-week online course to help small and medium enterprises working in the cyber security industry.
Dubbed the Innovate to Grow program, the CSIRO course is designed to help SMEs working within the cyber security industry hone their research and development capabilities. Commencing on the 1st of December, the course is open for between 20 to 25 SMEs.
During the program, businesses will also be granted the opportunity to engage with Data61, the CSIRO’s data and digital specialist, and gain success to industry knowledge and have an R&D mentor.
The CSIRO has also confirmed that some program’s participants may be granted access to additional support to access additional R&D expertise or even dollar-matched funding following course completion.
Cyber security has become party of the day-to-day lives for individuals and businesses across a multitude of sectors.
“Cyber criminals are constantly finding new ways to carry our [out] cyber attacks, which can have devastating impacts for companies and consumers,” Dr Surya Nepal, Data 61 group leader at the CSIRO, said.
Recent analytics from the Australian Cyber Security Centre have found that cyber crime has increased 13 percent on the previous financial year.
Continued growth requires businesses to be constantly innovating, George Feast, SME Connect deputy director at the CSIRO, said.
“Much of this can be driven by SMEs — who make up 99.8 per cent of all businesses in Australia — developing new cyber products and services powered by R&D,” Dr Feast said.
“However, R&D can be an expensive undertaking for businesses and risky for those without the right guidance and support.
“Through our Innovate to Grow program, we invite participants to come with a specific cyber security commercial idea they’d like to explore. Over 10 weeks, we’ll step businesses through how to refine their idea, to understand its research viability, and begin engaging a university or research institution to deliver a collaborative R&D project,” he said.
Already, the project has received applause from participants.
Rezilens operations project manager Corey Fraser welcomed the opportunity to provide accessible cyber security training to SMEs.
“This was essentially our first opportunity to pursue formal R&D, as we’re still fairly young — just under two years in operation,” Fraser said.
“What was really appealing for us through this program was the exposure to academics and NGOs in the security space, along with the associated benefit of learning from their industry expertise. And finding out about how we could access potential funding opportunities.
“I’d recommend this program for other start-ups who typically lack the capital and time to pursue these sorts of activities. Having the experience coordinated by CSIRO really aided in the structure and consistency of the program, and the lack of associated costs was a huge plus as well,” he said.
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