The Slovenian Cyber Resilience Lab will act as a regional support centre for start-ups and other smaller R&D organisations in tackling cybersecurity-related issues. The SCRL Lab will focus on spreading cybersecurity awareness, providing training, and sharing knowledge by bringing together various stakeholders who shape Slovenian start-up communities, as well as stakeholders from the Slovenian cybersecurity sector. From an employee at a young start-up to the decision-maker at the national level, the Slovenian Cyber Resilience Lab will connect actors on operational and strategic levels to identify and implement the best possible solutions for tackling cybersecurity threats of the present and future.
Key Features
Slovenia is one of the emerging hubs of innovation in central and eastern European regions, with over 600 start-ups present and a combined market value of over 2 billion euros. With the European-wide push for higher R&D sovereignty and independence from third countries, the exposure of start-ups to cyber threats and technology leakage is at an all-time high. However, cybersecurity is not a priority for Slovenian start-up communities. Since they are wholly focused on product development and beating their competitors to market, they lack both the resources and the knowledge to develop an efficient cybersecurity system.
Main Challenges
Slovenian Cyber Resilience Lab will focus on the following challenges:
- Spread cybersecurity awareness in Slovenian R&D communities: raise the awareness on cybersecurity related threats of present and the future.
- Identify and provide adequate resources for establishing cybersecurity programmes: connect various stakeholders who can contribute with their knowledge, time or already developed cybersecurity solutions, which could be integrated and used by wider R&D community.
- Raise the issue of cybersecurity resilience in Slovenian R&D communities at national level: decision makers on the national level must recognise the issue of cybersecurity in R&D communities to propose and implement nation-wide solutions and policies. This will not only benefit the start-ups themselves, but also the other stakeholders in R&D communities – from investors to start-up incubators and hubs.
Highlights
The significance of the SCRL labs lies in the necessity for a comprehensive stakeholder engagement strategy, involving both active participants in addressing cybersecurity issues and those who are less engaged. The lab will build on the state of cybersecurity in Slovenian start-up environment by conducting a survey and reaching out to different groups of stakeholders such as Slovenian Ministry of the Economy, Tourism and Sport, SI-CERT, GO-LIX d.o.o. and Windex d.o.o and other stakeholders in private and public domains. The use of scenarios will be central to then find appropriate solutions to work together as a community and increased preparedness in a rapidly changing hybrid geopolitical and cyber-security environment.