Cyber and Fraud Centre – Scotland has reinvested more than £3 million into cyber resilience and community support in its first full year as a social enterprise, as the cyber threat facing Scottish organisations continues to escalate.
Profits recycled into protection
The Centre became a social enterprise in January 2025, with a model that channels profits from its professional cyber services straight back into programmes for those most vulnerable to cyber crime and fraud. These commercial services range from penetration and vulnerability testing to Cyber MOTs and executive education for boards and senior leaders.
That approach aligns with wider Scottish and UK policy moves which frame cyber security as an economic necessity rather than a technical nice‑to‑have. Procurement frameworks, regulators and major buyers are increasingly demanding demonstrable cyber standards across their supply chains, pushing charities, SMEs and public bodies to evidence resilience or risk being locked out of contracts.
Free training, MOTs and incident response
The Centre’s impact report sets out where the £3 million has gone over the last year.
- More than £1.4 million of free CPD‑accredited cyber training has been delivered, reaching over 500 charities and social housing organisations and 200 SMEs across Scotland.
- Over 50 third sector senior leaders and trustees have taken up fully funded places on the Centre’s Cyber Executive Education programme, worth more than £25,000.
- Charities and SMEs have received upwards of £45,000 worth of free Cyber MOTs to identify vulnerabilities and prioritise improvements in their cyber posture.
On the incident front, the Centre has invested over £500,000 in direct support to organisations responding to attacks, including ransomware, phishing and Business Email Compromise. More than 50 SMEs have used the free National Cyber Incident Response Helpline over the past year, reflecting what Scottish Government analysis describes as a growing and under‑reported cyber threat landscape.
Early intervention has also been a focus. Intelligence‑driven actions prevented 10 Distributed Denial‑of‑Service (DDoS) attacks, avoiding an estimated £100,000 in business interruption costs. Meanwhile, through its Cyber and Fraud Hub, the Centre has supported more than 700 individuals affected by fraud, preventing or recovering over £1.6 million in losses between 2024 and 2025.
Grounding cyber in community impact
For many charities and community organisations, cyber risk now sits alongside safeguarding and finance as a board‑level concern, but access to affordable specialist support remains constrained. That tension is at the heart of the Centre’s social mission. CEO Jude McCorry argues that cyber resilience must be accessible, not a privilege reserved for larger corporates with deep pockets.
Street Soccer Scotland, one of the Centre’s charitable partners, said it needed a cyber security partner that understood both the sensitivity of its data and the reality of limited resources. COO Gerry Britton credits the Centre’s tailored testing and prioritised advice with giving the organisation a clear roadmap, describing the depth of support as transformational for its resilience.
To mark the publication of the impact report, the Centre has launched a competition for 25 third sector organisations to win a year of cyber security support with a combined value of more than £10,000. Registered charities across Scotland can apply via the Centre’s website, with the package expected to include training, assessments and hands‑on guidance.
Investing in Scotland’s cyber talent pipeline
The Centre’s work also stretches into skills and workforce development, an area highlighted repeatedly in national cyber strategies as critical to long‑term resilience. Through a long‑running partnership with Abertay University, 70 ethical hacking students have completed paid placements at the Centre over the past six years, many moving into permanent roles in the sector.
Natalie Coull, Head of Division of Cybersecurity at Abertay, says the collaboration has “significantly enhanced student employability” while giving SMEs across Scotland access to specialist skills through the Centre’s ethical hacking team. The work is anchored at Abertay’s cyberQuarter in Dundee, an £18 million hub for cyber research, industry collaboration and skills, backed by both the Scottish and UK governments.
At school level, the “See It Be It” programme is designed to encourage more young people – particularly girls – to consider cyber careers. Over the last year the initiative has engaged 20 schools and more than 200 schoolgirls through events, talks and industry role models, seeking to address persistent gender imbalances in the sector.
Where next for Scotland’s cyber social enterprise?
Looking ahead, Cyber and Fraud Centre – Scotland plans to expand its programmes further, with a particular focus on evolving the National Cyber Incident Response Helpline from an incident‑only service into an ongoing advisory function for organisations that want regular guidance. It also intends to continue investing in talent initiatives like ethical hacking placements and “See It Be It”, in line with Scotland’s wider cyber resilience framework for 2025–2030.
With £3 million already reinvested into Scotland’s cyber defences in a single year, the Centre’s model suggests that social enterprise can be more than a label in the cyber space – it can be a mechanism for turning commercial demand into collective resilience.
