The Minister met with Andrew Beale OBE Director of IP Wales to discuss how research can be used to keep companies resilient from the growing threat of IP cybercrime and how the UK government can support the important work of IP Wales in this area.

Associate Professor Andrew Beale, said: “Cyberattacks on data, be it sensitive information about business operations (trade secrets) or customer information, are happening globally with increasing rapidity and ever more complexity.

“Zero-day vulnerabilities (where hackers have discovered and exploit a software security breach before a fix is available) are increasing exponentially. In response with the support of the Welsh European Funding Office (WEFO) and Welsh Government IP Wales will be launching a new cybercrime initiative 2017-2020, the aim of which is to help Welsh SMEs to protect their IP online. This initiative is intended to sit between children (online bullying/online sexual abuse) and seniors (online fraud) in the ages of online vulnerability.”

Following the meeting, the Minister met with Swansea University postgraduate students studying the Law of Intellectual Assets Management & Transactions to discuss how to engage more students in democratic elections.