Prime Minister's Office of Spain

04/09/2021 | Press release | Archived content

Government to invest more than 450 million euros over three years to boost cybersecurity industry and to attract talent

The State Secretary for Digitalisation and Artificial Intelligence, Carme Artigas, visited the headquarters of the National Cybersecurity Institute (INCIBE) in Leon, where she announced that the government will invest more than 450 million euros over the next three years in boosting the cybersecurity industry and in attracting talent.

The INCIBE will structure this challenge through the new Strategic Plan 2021-2025, aligned with the Digital Spain 2025 Agenda and the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan, thus confirming the government's commitment to the digital transformation and economic growth through public-private collaboration. The Plan will be developed through the three main pillars of (i) boosting the business ecosystem of the sector and attracting talent, (ii) strengthening the cybersecurity of individuals, SMEs and professionals, and (iii) consolidating Spain as an international cybersecurity hub.

Carme Artigas stressed the importance of this sector for ensuring that Spain has the technical and human resources necessary to cover the demands of national cybersecurity, and for the growth of R&D+i in the economy of our country.

Cybersecurity industry

Spain has a cybersecurity industry with a 20-year track-record, more than 1,600 companies with combined sales of over 1.3 billion euros per annum and expectations of growth of around 15% per annum. Accordingly, the boost to the cybersecurity ecosystem is one of the priorities of the Digital Spain 2025 Agenda and of the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan, under the format of entrepreneurship, support for R&D+i in cybersecurity, acceleration programmes for the growth of start-ups, boosting internationalisation and the identification and development of cybersecurity talent, among others.

The Ministry of Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation has opened up a consultation to identify proposals to strengthen the cybersecurity capacities of SMEs and to boost the industry of the sector.

Furthermore, through the National Cybersecurity Institute, several programmes will shortly be launched, given over, on the one hand, to entrepreneurship through public-private collaboration, technological training in companies and boosting internationalisation and, on the other hand, to boosting innovation in cybersecurity through innovative public procurement.

Training and talent

To boost the strengthening of the cybersecurity of individuals, SMEs and professionals, Carme Artigas announced the forthcoming launch of the Hacker Academy, a cybersecurity training programme to train and attract talent in one of the key digital skills at this time, with a special focus on training women.

The Hacker Academy will be a team-training initiative for those over the age of 14 and resident in Spain, that will promote the learning of cybersecurity skills through continuous training over time to instruct members in different technical skills. This programme will be developed between 3 May and 25 June 2021 in an online format. A maximum number of 400 teams participating will be established with between four and eight members. Each team will have to overcome different challenges posed in areas related to cybersecurity in an entertainment environment.

Similarly, several digital transformation programmes will be developed for citizens and minors to boost cybersecurity resilience for companies, as well as to publicise and create jobs in the field of cybersecurity.

International benchmark

The State secretary highlighted the leading role of INCIBE as an international benchmark in cybersecurity and recalled that the candidacy of Leon to host the European Centre for Industrial, Technological and Research in Cybersecurity Centre has served to unite institutions, entities and companies around a common goal.

Non official translation