Thank you and good afternoon to everybody.
It’s a great privilege and a pleasure to be here at Sheffield Hallam University and to join you for what I know has been a highly impressive postgraduate showcase.
It genuinely is a great pleasure for me to be here at Sheffield Hallam, meeting what I’m certain are the next generation of cyber experts. So don’t let me down!
I have to say that walking into a room full of postgraduate cyber security students is slightly daunting.
I suspect that all of you will know how to hack into my Wi-Fi, my smart phone, and probably even my fridge as well.
Not that there’s anything much in my fridge.
Perhaps some mouldy tomatoes but no state secrets. So, don’t spend too much time trying to do that!
But I should also say that today is a great excuse to be here in a place that has been a real constant throughout the course of my life.
And that is the city of Sheffield.
I remember a time from many, many years ago when, having just left school, I worked hard to earn some money to travel to the Himalayas. You’re probably wondering where I’m going with this.
On a trek up the Annapurna peak, I stayed with a local family, a Nepalese hill family, who gave me shelter for a few days.
They were incredibly kind and shared with me everything that they had – even though they had almost nothing for themselves.
Now, I particularly remember those days because I had picked up quite a nasty stomach bug, and – without wanting to go into too much detail – I spent more time than I would have liked hunched over their toilet.
Anyway, as I’m sure many of you will be familiar, it’s not much fun to be feeling sick on the other side of the world, and I confess at that moment to feeling a bit sorry for myself and like I was a long way from home.
I suppose I was looking for reassurance.
And do you know what? I found it in the most unexpected of places.
Because I looked down into the toilet and saw three words etched into the bowl.
Three words that provided me with that reassurance.
Three words that reminded me of home.
Three words that have stayed with me till this day.
Those three words were
Made in Sheffield.
So, Sheffield has been a constant – both my father and my youngest daughter were born here.
And, a few years ago, I had the great privilege to be elected as the first ever mayor of what was then the Sheffield City Region.
And, also having been a local MP up in Barnsley for nearly 15 years now, I can confidently say that Sheffield is a brilliant place to be and Sheffield Hallam is an outstanding institution to study at.
Now, I mentioned my role as mayor and MP but going back even further, and some of you may find this difficult to believe, I was once a student myself.
Although, a lot has changed since then. For one thing, remarkable as it might sound, a fair chunk of my work as an undergraduate was done offline.
My lecture notes were handwritten which meant deciphering your own revision materials was a whole module in itself.
Back then, if you wanted to ‘download’ something, it involved a cassette tape, a radio, and some impressive reflexes to make sure you hit record in time.
Today, you’ve got AI tools, virtual labs, and lecture recordings, and yet somehow, I am sure lots of you, like myself at one point, still end up doing everything the night before the deadline.
So some things don’t change.
Jumping forwards to more recent times, I had the honour and privilege last year of being appointed by the Primer Minister as the Security Minister.
And, during the recent government reshuffle, which is quite a nerve wracking experience I can tell you, my role was expanded to be shared across the Cabinet Office and the Home Office.
This is a recognition from the Prime Minister that we do not need separate spheres of activity when it comes to national security.
But a single minister working with all the key agencies and individuals, driving forward a single, vital agenda across government and beyond.
Now, of course, I’ve learned a great deal along the way, and all the experiences I have had inform my approach to the issues that come across my desk every day.
But, it’s also fair to say the world has changed drastically in that time.
One of the key factors driving that change has been technological advancement, especially in the online space.
So, for people like me who have responsibility for understanding the risks and capitalising on the opportunities, the learning process is constant.
And that brings me on to the vital role played by institutions like Sheffield Hallam.
Sheffield Hallam continues to prove itself as a leading centre of education and research in cyber.
I’ve heard about the great research work being done here by CENTRIC, and the world-reaching impact of its work.
Last year, government funded a Sheffield Hallam project through our CyberASAP programme.
This was called ‘CyberMATI’, an AI-powered solution for detecting phishing and malicious websites.
And there’s more to come.
Through our Cyber Local Programme, we’re now funding a new 6 month project, led by Sheffield Hallam.
This will focus on equipping lecturers with the knowledge and strategies to teach cyber security effectively. More impactful work coming from right here in Sheffield.
And the numbers say it all.
The combined value of the tech ecosystem in Yorkshire and Humber region is now valued at £20 billion, with venture capital investment at nearly £350 million.
The region accounts for 4% of the UK’s cyber businesses and 6% of cyber employment.
I am delighted that this area continues to establish itself, very firmly, as an international hub for cyber security innovation.
And this is absolutely crucial, because cyber security has never been more pivotal to our national security and our economic health.
As you all know, the UK is one of the most digitally connected countries in the world. This creates great opportunities but also increases our exposure to a range of cyber threats from hostile states, ransomware gangs and cyber criminals.
Criminal groups target everything from small businesses, local councils and schools, to major organisations and critical national infrastructure.
The threat is large and increasing.
In the 12 months up to December of last year, an estimated 20% of UK businesses and 14% of UK charities were a victim of at least one cyber crime.
As underscored by the attacks on Marks & Spencer and more recently Jaguar Land Rover, every business and organisation is a potential target – no matter how big or how prominent.
With these threats growing all the time, the only response is to ramp up activity to tackle perpetrators and keep our citizens, businesses and institutions safe online.
And my job gives me a first-hand insight into the tremendous effort that is being mounted every day across government and law enforcement.
Let me give you an example.
Last year the National Crime Agency successfully led worldwide efforts to dismantle Lockbit, who at the time accounted for 25% of ransomware attacks.
The NCA infiltrated the network to take control of the infrastructure, obtained platform source codes, took down over 28 servers belonging to affiliates and, working with Europol, the FBI and the US Department of Justice, have secured arrests and sanctions against the group’s leadership.
Operational successes are important.
But more broadly, we need to ensure the structures and frameworks in place are geared towards delivering the best possible outcomes.
We have therefore recently announced important measures which aim to reduce ransomware payments to cyber criminals and increase incident reporting.
We must also maintain a relentless focus on raising cyber resilience across the UK and you are all key to that.
Cyber security is no longer a niche concern it is integral to our national safety, economic prosperity, and democratic integrity.
When systems are hit, the services we all rely on are knocked offline.
So, the work you are doing, and the careers you are preparing for, are much more than specialist technical roles.
Working in the cyber world is one of the few careers where you can genuinely say, “I stopped a disaster before lunchtime.”
For example, preventing a ransomware attack from locking down a hospital’s patient records or preventing a phishing campaign targeting a local council before large sums of cash are sent to a fake invoice.
And there has never been a better time to build a career in cyber security.
It is one of the most dynamic, one of the most rewarding fields out there, where your work will have real-world impact.
The sector continues to grow, faster than most other sectors, with total annual revenue in the UK of £13.2 billion and close to 7,000 new jobs filled in the last year alone.
It’s not just the ever-increasing size of the sector that’s exciting, but also the great variety of roles to choose from. It’s a space where no two days are the same and your career can literally take you anywhere.
Take law enforcement, for example.
For those of you who want to blend hands‑on technical work with a public‑service mission, policing offers an array of roles at the cutting edge of cyber.
From threat intelligence and pursuing criminals across the globe, to incident response and digital forensics, to working directly in the community with businesses and local authorities.
These are just some of the opportunities available in what I believe to be the most meaningful form of public service – keeping the public safe.
Before I finish, I want to mention the work the government are doing with Sheffield Hallam through the Cyber Resilience Centre programme.
This partnership, particularly through the Cyber PATH project, is a model of how government, academia, and industry can collaborate to deliver real-world benefits.
By providing cyber security services to small organisations, we’re not only improving national resilience – we’re also giving you the experience and confidence to lead in your field.
I’m especially pleased to recognise the impact that recent graduates of Sheffield Hallam have had.
Working with our North-East Business Resilience Centre, the success stories I’ve been hearing about are fantastic.
These achievements show the importance of education and creating opportunities to enhance cyber knowledge among talented young people nationwide.
The work is ongoing across government, led by my colleagues in the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, to continue growing the UK cyber skills agenda.
Programmes such as CyberASAP, CyberFirst and TechFirst all show our commitment in this area.
Finally, I want to say thank you again to the University for the invitation to join you for this excellent event.
This has been an invaluable opportunity to meet and spend time with so many highly talented young people.
If we can harness the wealth of skill and expertise that’s present in this room and beyond, and if we can mobilise the brightest minds then we can continue to protect the public from the growing and evolving cyber threat.
I really look forward to hearing where your cyber journey takes you.
You are entering a sector that will require new ideas, new perspectives, and people who genuinely care about making the digital world safe.
And that’s you.
The future is yours to shape, so make the most of it.
Thank you.
