Cyber resilience economic opportunity: key actions 2018-2021

6 Economic Benefit

6.1 A thriving cyber security cluster has the potential to contribute significantly to Scotland's economic prosperity in many ways, including:

Innovation benefits – The development of new goods and services will increase spending on research and development (R&D) – both for higher education (HERD) and business (BERD).

Investment benefits – The creation of new companies and the expansion of existing companies will require additional funding capital and will provide high quality opportunities for new financial investment in Scotland.

Inclusive growth benefits – A new and expanding supply of cyber-related research, goods and services will create additional employment (one of the principal ways citizens share in economic opportunities). Additional employment means there will be a need for continued investment in skills, training and education (including for under-represented groups) to support this.

Internationalisation benefits – A growing, high-quality offering of research, goods and services will result in more competitive and increased exports, as well as attracting more foreign companies and talent to locate in Scotland.

6.2 We also anticipate broader benefits from the impact of this economic opportunity action plan, combined with the outputs of the other four action plans. Together, they will support the goal of building a fundamentally resilient digital economy, well equipped to protect itself from cyber attacks. It is difficult to put a definitive value on that, although a range of figures have been placed on the costs of cyber attacks to the UK economy. It is clear such solid resilience will be essential to realising wider opportunity in the global digital economy and placing Scotland as a leader on the world stage in terms of cyber resilience.