FIVE of Scotland’s top cyber experts are to spell out the heightened risk of security breaches to the digital technologies industry.

The event in Glasgow will consider the dangers of such breaches to companies of all sizes, and will culminate in a question-and-answer session chaired by Keith McDevitt, head of the Scottish Government’s cyber resilience unit. It is being hosted by ScotlandIS, the trade body for the digital technologies sector.

McDevitt was a police officer in Central Scotland for 30 years, latterly as head of the eCrime unit, before becoming eCrime forensic manager with Fife Constabulary.

He was then seconded to, and eventually joined, the Scottish Government, working in the cyber resilience unit.

McDevitt played a large part in the launch of the “safe, secure, prosperous” cyber strategy for Scotland.

Speakers will include David Stubley, founder of 7 Elements, an Edinburgh-based firm of IT security testing specialists, who will talk about “truly secure systems”, while Jamie Graves, managing director of data security firm, Zone Fox, will talk on the subject of cyber threats from within organisations.

Scott Barnett, head of intelligence and response at TSB, will explain what a cyber threat looks like, and Mike Upton from information assurance specialists NCC will talk on the subject “Cyber, what’s the problem?”

The remit of ScotlandIS is to raise the profile of the industry in Scotland, lobby policy-makers and support members in the development of business relationships.

Its chief executive Polly Purvis said no digital technology company could afford to be complacent.

She said: “I am delighted that five of the nation’s top security experts have agreed to share their knowledge on the types of risk and strategic challenges that companies encounter every day.”

The November 17 event takes place in the Google Garage in Mitchell Library.