Government to launch £4m cyber security awareness campaign

Government

The Government has announced a 4 million cyber security awareness blitz to help educate consumers and businesses about how to stay safe online.

To help the Government deliver on this aim, PR, media and creative agencies are being invited to bid to work on a cyber security awareness campaign that will launch in the autumn.

An invitation to tender has been added to the Government Procurement Service's web page for those interested in submitting a bid.

The campaign's focus must be on educating consumers and small business about how to avoid falling victim to cyber criminals, the Government stated.

The Home Office-led campaign forms part of the Government's wider National Cyber Security Programme, and will also feature input from the Cabinet Office, Department of Business, Innovation and Skills, and a number of private sector web security experts.

In a statement, security minister James Brokenshire, said the scheme should help consumers and businesses feel more confident when trading online.

"The digitisation of the UK economy has made our lives easier and has created huge opportunities, but it has also created individual security risks as well," Brokenshire said.

"If we are to meet these new challenges it's essential we step up our efforts to stay safe online."

The campaign is the latest in a series of cyber security measures the Government has introduced in recent times. These have included initiatives to bolster the number of skilled cyber security professionals in the UK, as well as schemes aimed at increasing private and publice sector collaboration on security issues.

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Caroline Donnelly is the news and analysis editor of IT Pro and its sister site Cloud Pro, and covers general news, as well as the storage, security, public sector, cloud and Microsoft beats. Caroline has been a member of the IT Pro/Cloud Pro team since March 2012, and has previously worked as a reporter at several B2B publications, including UK channel magazine CRN, and as features writer for local weekly newspaper, The Slough and Windsor Observer. She studied Medical Biochemistry at the University of Leicester and completed a Postgraduate Diploma in Magazine Journalism at PMA Training in 2006.