The first ever Cyber Wales event was the newly formed South Wales Cyber Security Cluster meeting which ran in July 2014.
The meeting was officially opened by Dr Emma Philpott from the UK Cyber Security Forum who formally welcomed the new Cluster, the first open cluster to follow in the footsteps of the original Malvern Cyber Security Cluster, and spoke about some success stories of collaborative working in the Malvern Group.
The inaugural guest speaker was Professor Andrew Blyth from the University of South Wales who gave a very entertaining in-depth briefing on some of the forensics and vulnerability projects he has run for the police, GCHQ, government and private bodies in the university's multi-million pound security lab environment.
The meeting was hosted by Urquhart-Dykes & Lord and was attended by three prominent cyber companies namely Pervade Software, Westgate Cyber Security and Skybrid as well as representatives of the South Wales Police Cyber Crime Unit and Welsh Government's ICT Sector Team. Independent cyber security specialist consultants Meirion Morgan and Jeremy Creasey were also there as well as an organisation associated with the cyber community Thomas Carroll Group Plc who were creating cyber insurance cover. Yes, these were the 'Grand Originals' and anyone else who claims they were there is a liar :-).
From these small beginnings our amazing Cyber Wales Ecosystem has grown to become a globally recognised brand with almost 1,000 organisations collaborating and sharing best practice.
This morning, exactly 7 years after we started this journey, we had some fantastic news which is going to be a real game-changer for all of us!!!
At the risk of being a total tease, we - your 9 Cluster Managers - would like to share this news with you at the All Wales Cluster meeting on Tuesday.
We will take some time to reminisce about the highs and lows from last 7 years, let you know what has changed as of this morning, then turn our attention to a very bright future full of new possibilities.
Please come and join us next week and all will be revealed.
See you all there!
Link to the event - https://global.gotomeeting.com/join/908950261
