Woo hoo, UK.gov has unveiled yet another tech creche – for infosec

Plans are afoot in Westminster to burn even more taxpayers' cash by launching a new cyber-security startup accelerator in Cheltenham.

The accelerator will be the umpteenth vehicle for funnelling money to muppets since the coalition government came to power.

Other accelerators have included a military technology free-money haus opened in July, and Vince Cable's hipster tech creche with the Urban Innovation Centre last year.

Today, with bells and whistles, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport declared that it has teamed up with “GCHQ and the nation’s top tech start-ups to develop new technologies aimed at protecting the UK from cyber attacks.”

There are several groups which aim to protect the UK from cyber attacks, not least among them the UK's signals intelligence and surveillance agency, which receives billions in funding from the Single Intelligence Account budget every year.

According to a recent report from the National Audit Office, there are 12 separate teams and organisations who are in some way responsible for infosec in British government departments and whom the Cabinet Office is utterly failing to co-ordinate.

DCMS said:

The tie-up is the first step in the development of two world-leading innovation centres as part of the Government’s £1.9bn National Cyber Security Programme.

The facility will also fast-track new firms into the booming cyber security sector which contributed £1.8bn in exports to the UK economy last year and grew from £17.6bn in 2014 to almost £22bn in 2015.

The accelerator itself will be operated by Wayra UK, part of Telefónica Open Future, and will offer start-ups the opportunity to access “GCHQ's world-class personnel and technological expertise to allow them to expand capability, improve ideas and devise cutting-edge products to outpace current and emerging threats.”

Applicants can contact Wayra here to be part of the programme which includes "insights to Government procurement processes, IP management, export controls and information assurance architecture." ®