16 Apr 2024

National Protective Security Authority and Secure Innovation

Free tool tech leaders can use to help secure the future of their business

The UK has a strong record in research and development and a vibrant emerging tech startup ecosystem. This makes innovative UK companies attractive targets for state actors, competitors, or criminals. As a tech leader, the motivation to steal your business’s IP could be to gain a competitive advantage, seek commercial profit, or to increase another states’ military advantage over other countries, risking the UK’s national security.

The UK’s National Protective Security Authority (NPSA) and the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), have developed the Secure Innovation campaign to help founders and leaders of innovative early-stage tech companies to protect your IP, competitive advantage, and reputation.

Innovative technology is at the heart and soul of startup businesses in this sector, and you can invest substantial amounts of time, money, and effort into building a business around that innovation. Security is often overlooked at this crucial stage of the business lifecycle but protecting that innovation should be at the forefront of your decision making. If security is left at the bottom of the priority list, the risk of damage to your reputation and commercial success can be significant.

The new Secure Innovation Personalised Action Plan tool has been developed to help early-stage innovative companies protect their innovation. By answering a few quick questions about your business and existing security arrangements, this free tool will generate a bespoke security action plan for your business, guiding you through the next steps on your security journey.

As a tech leader you will often have limited time, so the Personalised Action Plan has been designed with concise, actionable language to help you implement better security measures as quickly and as simply as possible. Taking the right steps now will enable you to embed good security practices from an early stage, making your business more robust, as well as more attractive to investors.

NPSA and NCSC would really welcome feedback from users of this new tool. If you would like to share your thoughts, please do so via this form.

More detailed guidance on how to keep your business secure can be found on the Secure Innovation website, along with additional guidance on security risk scenarios, background checks, travel security, security for growing companies, and security for investors.

The message to startup leaders is simple, don’t leave it too late to protect your innovation! Access the tool here and take the next steps on your security journey.