A total cyber protection service to Small Businesses operating critical infrastructure and Residential customers

Project Information

ConnectProtect

Grant agreement ID: 728516

DOI

10.3030/728516

Project closed

EC signature date 22 June 2016

Start date 1 July 2016

End date 31 December 2016

Funded under

• Secure societies - Protecting freedom and security of Europe and its citizens

Total cost

€ 71 429,00

EU contribution

€ 50 000,00

Coordinated by

SECON SOLUTIONS LIMITED
United Kingdom

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - ConnectProtect (A total cyber protection service to Small Businesses operating critical infrastructure and Residential customers)

Reporting period: 2016-07-01 to 2016-12-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

Poor cyber security is a problem that will potentially cause a loss of €1.89Tn by 2019. Increasingly sophisticated attacks require security that is outside the budget of most SMEs. Losses are both direct from revenues lost due to attacks- and indirect - from subsequent loss of business due to being unable to demonstrate cyber security to standards required by large enterprises and governmental organisations.
We, at Secon, have developed a technology that uses existing security products and extends their usefulness by further processing of their logs. We have outlined a strategy to productise this in a form that is useful and affordable for most SMEs. This will open up markets to SMEs, from which they have previously been excluded due to perceived lack of cyber security. We have an ambition to capture at last 0.4% of the European cyber security market for SMEs and generate at least €18m in annual
revenues within five years of commercialisation. Our objectives in this feasibility study were:
1. Establish (by month three) the optimum number of users we can accommodate on our servers, in
terms of maximising numbers and minimising costs without compromising service
2. Conduct a detailed, Europe wide cyber security market study to establish the size and dynamics of this market for SMEs over the next five years
3. Develop an IP strategy for protection of our solution, listing protectable elements, protection actions and likely costs
4. Recruit relevant project and supply chain partners for platform enhancement, software development, testing and validation and marketing activities
5. Combine all results into a concise business plan.
Conclusions:
We have a viable cyber security platform and we should now proceed to a validation and scale up phase for this technology.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

Task 1.1: Determine the Economic System Capacity [Estimated Cost: €15,000] This will be an iterative process led by the technical lead and team, in which a virtual simulated load is applied to our server based platform system to monitor response times against load. We will analyse the cost per unit traffic based on the level of resource required to respond to specific incidents. This will be compared against set economic targets to establish the number of users our system can economically support.
Expected Output: Document detailing simulation results and established system capacity.
Achieved: and summarised in Part B
Task 1.2: Market Study [Estimated Cost: €20,000] Our business development team will use desk based approach to analyse current industry reports to establish overall market trends. We will contact industry experts to obtain up-to-date industry analysis. Based on identified user needs, we will profile companies to establish a list of target customers to engage with pre-product launch. We will interview a select number to obtain customer specific value drivers to shape our proposed value proposition.
Expected Output: Detailed Market Study Report.
Achieved: Subcontracted, summarised in Part B
Task 1.3: IP and Commercialisation Strategy [Estimated Cost: €15,000] Our senior management will engage IP consultants to thoroughly investigate the IP landscape and also advise on protectable elements of our technology. Through this process, we will draw up an IP Strategy that identifies key protection and exploitation activities together with a timetable for implementation
Expected Output: An IP and Commercialisation Strategy Document.
Achieved: Report from IP lawyer summarised in Part B
Task 1.4: Partner Search [Estimated Cost: €10,000] Our senior management will conduct a gap analysis to identify key partners required for our supply, distribution and value networks. We will review our list of contacts and industry associations to identify suitable partners and initiate contact through telephone, email and face to face contact. We will seek to partner global brands to aid in our internationalisation efforts.
Expected Output: Expressions of interest and Memorandum of Understanding attained.
Achieved: Partners identified in Part B and recruitment ongoing.
Task 1.5: Business Plan [Estimated Cost: €12,000] Upon completion of all our planned activities, we will have the necessary information to update and refine our existing business plan to produce a more comprehensive document. Our business development team, championed by Robert Gupta, will produce a concise document with input from both our technical and financial functions-
Expected Output: Detailed business plan.
Achieved: Summarised in Part B, Full expanded document in preparation for multiple audiences (fundraising and Phase 2 proposal)

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

We have identified that our proposed incident prioritisation engine, as described in Part B, is highly novel. This is the key innovation allowing us to provide a maximum level of security, in a package that is affordable to SMEs. Technology was at TRL6 at the start of this project, thus already highly novel. Socio economic impacts include:
• A boost in our revenues of €18m by 2022
• Creation of up to 200 new jobs across the EU as we scale up
• Improved cyber security protection for over 16,000 SMEs, benefiting them directly in reducing cost of cyber crime
• Indirect benefit to SMEs in opening up new markets in ‘soft’ critical infrastructure, due to having better cyber security
• A reduction in cost of providing cyber security, from €280 to between €9 and €116 per employee, per month
• Reduction in cost of direct damage caused by cyber attacks- the above figures include damage clean up, current costs are typically €900 per person-day needed
As a feasibility study, this project has not had any socio economic impact so far. This will be realised as we scale up and enter new markets by executing the technical and commercial strategy, outlined in Part B. We are rolling out the platform as a service currently and have recently signed up a large public transport infrastructure provider as a customer. They will be an excellent early adopter to validate the new technologies we will develop as part of this platform

Overview of technology