UK “security tech” firms noticed a income improve of 21% over the previous 12 months to succeed in £381m, making it one of many fastest-growing sectors of the UK tech business, in keeping with a government-backed sectoral evaluation.
Carried out by Perspective Economics on behalf of the Division for Digital, Tradition, Media and Sport (DCMS), the UK security tech sector: 2022 evaluation discovered that the variety of firms delivering security tech services grew by 17% to 117, with jobs within the sector growing by 30% to complete 2,850.
Of the 117 security tech firms recognized by the evaluation, 57% are based mostly exterior London and the South East, with hotspots in Leeds and Edinburgh, and rising centres of exercise in Higher Manchester, Oxford, Bristol and Belfast.
“There are encouraging indicators of newly registered startups, significantly within the domains of tackling disinformation and creating new approaches to content material moderation and video and picture evaluation at scale,” mentioned the evaluation. “Present corporations specialising in communication and semantics are additionally transferring into the protection tech area.
“Because of appreciable development inside UK security tech, there was sustained curiosity from the funding group. It stays probably that the UK may see its first security tech unicorn [a company worth over $1bn] emerge within the coming years.”
The report mentioned complete exterior funding into UK security tech reached £63m cross 16 offers in 2021, though about half of this (£30m) went to College, a synthetic intelligence (AI) firm that has beforehand labored on the controversial NHS Covid-19 datastore. It’s run by Mark Warner, who additionally headed up the info operation for the Dominic Cummings-led Vote Go away EU referendum marketing campaign.
Different investments embody £15.2m raised by SafeToNet, which makes use of AI and analytics to assist safeguard youngsters by detecting threats; £5.8m raised by Vault Platform, a office misconduct reporting app; and £5m raised by Cyacomb, which is working with legislation enforcement companies internationally to detect baby sexual abuse materials (CSAM).
“Making the net world safer shouldn’t be solely the proper factor to do, it’s good for enterprise,” mentioned digital minister Damian Collins. “UK tech corporations are on the leading edge creating sensible options to the dangers posed by the web in order that it continues to be a profit, not a detriment, to individuals’s lives.
“They’ve blazed a path of development, innovation and job creation to change into world leaders of their area and we’re dedicated to sustaining their upward trajectory.”
Based on a separate Ipsos report launched on 27 July, Belief, security and the digital financial system, firms that undertake on-line security expertise additionally expertise better model belief, larger consumer engagement and higher employees and buyer retention.
“I’m delighted to see that the Security tech sector evaluation confirms there was sturdy development in gross sales, employment and funding within the sector and it stays one of many quickest rising components of the financial system,” mentioned Ian Stevenson, chair of the On-line Security Tech Business Affiliation (OSTIA).
“The brand new Belief, security and the digital financial system report highlights how platforms profit from security tech by creating more healthy and extra resilient on-line environments, which have industrial worth in addition to benefiting their customers. These new analyses will assist OSTIA members and others within the sector proceed these constructive developments.”
The sectoral evaluation and Ipsos report come within the wake of the UK authorities pausing the passage of the On-line Security Invoice after legislative timetabling points meant Parliament was unable to push the invoice by means of earlier than the summer time recess.
In his foreword to the DCMS report, Collins mentioned the federal government would proceed to fund the protection tech sector, and famous: “The Security Tech Problem Fund has already supported the event of progressive applied sciences to assist maintain youngsters secure in end-to-end encrypted [E2EE] environments, whereas upholding consumer privateness.”
Three firms engaged on a Security Tech Problem Fund venture to detect CSAM earlier than it reaches encrypted environments instructed Pc Weekly in January 2022 that pre-encryption scans for such content material – also referred to as client-side scanning – could be carried out with out compromising privateness.
Though Apple tried to introduce client-side scanning expertise – often called Neural Hash – to detect recognized baby sexual abuse photographs on iPhones final 12 months, the plans had been placed on indefinite maintain after an outcry by tech consultants.
A report by 15 main pc scientists, Bugs in our pockets: the dangers of client-side scanning, revealed by Columbia College, recognized a number of ways in which states, malicious actors and abusers may flip the expertise round to trigger hurt to others or society.
“Consumer-side scanning, by its nature, creates severe safety and privateness dangers for all society, whereas the help it might probably present for legislation enforcement is at finest problematic,” the scientists mentioned. “There are a number of methods by which client-side scanning can fail, could be evaded and could be abused.”
Talking with Pc Weekly in November 2021 after the announcement of the Problem Fund winners, then-digital minister Chris Philp mentioned the federal government wouldn’t mandate any scanning that goes past the scope of uncovering baby abuse materials.
“These applied sciences are CSAM-specific,” he mentioned. “I met with the businesses two days in the past and with all of those applied sciences, it’s about scanning photographs and figuring out them as both being beforehand recognized CSAM photographs or first-generation created new ones – that’s the solely functionality inherent in these applied sciences.”
Requested whether or not there was any functionality to scan for some other kinds of picture or content material in messages, Philp added: “They’re not designed to try this. They’d have to be repurposed for that, as that’s not how they’ve been designed or arrange. They’re particular CSAM scanning applied sciences.”