Guardtime and the UK Future Cities Catapult have just announced a partnership to develop blockchain cybersecurity solutions for UK critical infrastructure.
Guardtime and Future Cities Catapult, the UK-based centre of excellence for smart city innovation will initially focus on building prototype applications to enhance resiliency, security and reliability of critical infrastructure, including projects on flood defense systems, nuclear power and the electricity distribution grid.
Matthew Johnson, Chief Technology Officer of Guardtime said:
“As the world becomes more connected critical infrastructure will be even more exposed to cyberattack and today those tasked with defending infrastructure do not have the tools they need to guarantee the integrity of that infrastructure. We are thrilled to be working with Future Cities Catapult to design new blockchain based security solutions that can guarantee a level of operational resiliency not previously possible.”
Dr Catherine Mulligan, head of Digital Strategy and Economics at Future Cities Catapult added:
“Guardtime’s unique permissioned blockchain approach to large scale system integrity has tremendous potential to enhance the security of UK critical infrastructure and we are excited to work with the Guardtime team to build solutions that will play a key part in the government’s industrial strategy and showcase to the world how cities can be smarter in the future.”
The partnership will address the concerns highlighted in a recent report by Chatham House, a UK think-tank, that highlighted cybersecurity concerns around nuclear power plants, with the industry harboring a “culture of denial” about the risk of cyber hacking with many failing to protect themselves against digital attacks.
