Crossword Cybersecurity Regulatory News (CCS)

Crossword wins Innovate UK Grant to investigate Manufacturing Supply Chain Risk

15 December 2020 - London, UK - Crossword Cybersecurity Plc (AIM:CCS, "Crossword", the "Company" or the "Group"), the technology commercialisation company focused on cyber security and risk management, is pleased to announce that it has won an Innovate UK grant for £157,612 to investigate the issues around effective Manufacturing Supply Chain risk management and possible solutions. Specifically we want to identify reasons why, according to GOEDIS 2017 Supply Chain Worldwide survey, only 6% of companies have achieved full supply-chain visibility. Crossword, its Academic Partner, and two well-known British Manufacturing businesses, will investigate the reasons why organisations are reluctant to share details of their supply chains with their customers, and propose solutions based around its Rizikon Assurance platform to these problems.

Organisations need to control all risks in their supply chains, including for example cyber security, business continuity and modern slavery. The shift to more dynamic supply chains driven by Just In Time Manufacturing, COVID-19, Brexit and changing Environmental Social and Governance requirements has intensified this need. The lack of full supply chain visibility is restricting organisations' ability to identify and manage their supply chain risk. Crossword's portion of the grant awarded by the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund is £157,612. The Industrial Strategy Challenge aims to bring together the UK's world leading research with business to meet the major industrial and societal challenges of our time. The fund was created to provide funding and support to UK businesses and is run by Innovate UK and the Research Councils on behalf of UK Research and Innovation.

Jake Holloway, Chief Product Officer at Crossword Cybersecurity PLC, said: "We believe that a radically new approach to supply chain risk management can improve the UK's economic performance significantly. This feasibility study will look at the root causes of why manufacturing businesses can't always have full supply chain visibility, often caused by commercial confidentiality and lack of standards in supply chain risk systems. We'll propose and prototype solutions - be they methods, standards or systems, with our Academic and Manufacturing partners, and then plan on incorporating the solutions into our Rizikon product family."

Contacts

Crossword Cybersecurity plc - Tel: +44 (0) 20 3953 8460

Email: info@crosswordcybersecurity.com

Tom Ilube, Chief Executive Officer

Mary Dowd, Finance Director

Grant Thornton (Nominated Adviser) - Tel: +44 (0) 20 7383 5100

Colin Aaronson / Jamie Barklem

Hybridan LLP (Broker) - Tel: +44 (0)203 764 2341

Claire Louise Noyce

For media enquiries contact:

Duncan Gurney, GingerPR

duncan@gingerpr.co.uk - Tel: +44 (0)1932 485 300

About Crossword Cybersecurity plc

Crossword Cybersecurity plc focuses on the development and commercialisation of university research-based cyber security and risk management related software and cyber security consulting. The Group's specialist cyber security product development and software engineering teams work with its university partners to develop the research concept into a fully-fledged commercial product that it will then take to market. The Group's aim is to build up a portfolio of revenue generating, intellectual property based, cyber security products. Rizikon Assurance, Crossword's leading product, is a SaaS platform that enables medium to large companies to assess and manage all risks from their suppliers. Nixer CyberML, Crossword's most recently launched product, is a new tool for businesses that want to solve advanced security and cybercrime problems, such as detecting and dealing with compromised accounts, fraud, and in-application denial of service attacks. Crossword's team of expert cyber security consultants leverages years of experience in national security, defence and commercial cyber intelligence and operations to provide bespoke advice tailored to its clients' business needs.

About Innovate UK

Innovate UK drives productivity and economic growth by supporting businesses to develop and realise the potential of new ideas. Innovate UK connects businesses to the partners, customers and investors that can help them turn ideas into commercially successful products and services and business growth. We fund business and research collaborations to accelerate innovation and drive business investment into R&D. Our support is available to businesses across all economic sectors, value chains and UK regions.

Innovate UK is part of UK Research and Innovation.

For more information visit www.innovateuk.ukri.org