UK Research and Innovation has awarded over £700,000 of funding from the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund (ISCF) for the progression of radically updating the foundation of the insecure digital computing infrastructure. Something that underpins the entire economy.
The funding, awarded through the Digital Security by Design (DSbD) programme, supports UK small businesses. It provides them with the opportunity to assess how Arm’s technology platform prototype, Morello project, can add value to their product and service development. It will also help the next generation by accelerating the digital transformation of industry.
The impact and outcomes of these projects will enable the growth of the software ecosystem that will be crucial for the successful adoption of DSbD technologies.
This comes as new figures show the UK’s growing cyber security industry attracted record investment last year despite the global pandemic, according to a new government report.
Funded projects
The following are 10 UK small and medium enterprises who have been awarded funding for the following projects.
- a feasibility study of a data security software product adopting Digital Security by Design (DSbD) technology: ANZEN Technology Systems Limited, London
- a TEE-aware compartmentalisation framework based on DSbD: Verifoxx, London
- assessing the viability of an open source DSbD desktop software ecosystem: Capabilities Limited, Carmarthenshire, Wales
- CHERI standards compliance (CHERI Stone): DRISQ Ltd, Worcestershire
- data path development kit: Pytilia Limited, Northern Ireland
- multi-compartment computation protocol based on DSbD: MindHug LTD, Stowmarket, Suffolk.
- porting edge AI workflows to CHERI/Morello: OXON.Tech Ltd, Oxfordshire
- quantum-resistant DSbD security leveraging MicroTokenisation: Valid Datum Limited, London
- SecurlOT: IOETEC Limited, Sheffield
- trusted ring security for Morello Devices: Metrarc Limited, Colchester and Canterbury.
Next phase of demonstrators call
DSbD has recently secured additional funding from the Department for Digital, Culture, Media, and Sport (DCMS), to fund additional demonstrator projects. This is through a £6M competition to enable businesses to investigate and understand the benefits from adopting DSbD technologies within their industrial sector.
This competition follows on from the first phase demonstrator call, in which the THG Holdings plc led consortium was awarded £5.8M. This was to deliver the Soteria demonstrator project that investigates the impact of the new DSbD technologies in eCommerce.
This new demonstrator call will close on 26 May 2021.
This new competition is expected to fund up to three consortia to investigate additional industrial sectors.
Matt Warman
Digital Infrastructure Minister, Matt Warman, said:
We are working hand in glove with our world-class cyber security sector to build back better from the pandemic and make sure the UK is the safest place to be online.
Thanks to government support these projects can create pioneering and secure technologies that will give people and businesses further confidence in our digital economy and help combat cyber criminals.
John Goodacre
Professor John Goodacre, Challenge Director for Digital Security by Design Challenge Director, said:
DSbD technologies are not just another best practice recommendation, or a new AI tool to monitor your network and endpoints, they bring enhancements to the central hardware and software of a computer and create a step change in how business develop and use secure products and services. It is exciting to see these companies investigating how these technologies can benefit their business and products and further enhance the cyber security of living and working in the UK.”
