New £5000 Government grant for small businesses to boost cyber security 
A new scheme to protect small businesses from cyber attacks has been announced by Government today (Thursday 16 July 2015).
Speaking at the Reform “Cyber Security: assurance, resilience, response” conference in London, Digital Economy Minister Ed Vaizey has outlined how a new voucher scheme designed specifically for small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) will launch later this month.
The launch of the voucher scheme is part of a package of initiatives designed to increase the resilience of UK businesses to cyber-attacks. The package also includes a new online learning and careers hub to help ensure the UK has the cyber skills talent pool to protect both the public and private sectors as we face the reality of increasing cyber threats.
The new UK £1m cyber security innovation vouchers scheme will offer micro, small and medium sized businesses up to £5,000 for specialist advice to boost their cyber security and protect new business ideas and intellectual property. The Government’s innovation experts at Innovate UK will oversee the scheme.
As well as helping protect businesses from cyber attack, the vouchers enable firms to access services from the UK cyber security industry. This new scheme will also help businesses to adopt Cyber Essentials, Government’s flagship scheme to protect businesses online.
Further information on Cyber Security Innovation Vouchers and Knowledge Transfer Partnerships will be available on www.gov.uk/government/organisations/innovate-uk