10 Jul 2025
by Paras Shah CISSP

Secure Innovation: The Prerequisite for Resilient Digital Trade

Emerging technologies are reshaping global trade, and businesses are racing to harness the opportunities. 

Here is the uncomfortable truth: 

“No trade agreement, tech alliance, or AI-powered platform is future-ready if it ignores security. You cannot future-proof trade if you do not secure the innovation that drives it.” 

Cybersecurity, physical security, IP protection, and insider threat management are not optional extras. They are foundational to trust, investment, and strategic advantage in digital trade. 

Trade Opportunities and Their Exposure 

AI is powering trading finance. Quantum is nearing real-world impact. The next era of digital trade is built on emerging technologies; however, innovation constantly exposes new attack surfaces: 

  • Intellectual property, such as proprietary algorithms, models, and code repositories, is a prime target for theft, cloning, or reverse engineering. 
  • Sensitive AI training data and datasets can be tampered with, subtly corrupting outputs and undermining trust. 
  • Advances in Quantum technology threaten to dismantle today’s encryption, leaving high-value IP and trade secrets exposed. There will be a time when Quantum Tech will make today's encryption look like a sandcastle in a tsunami. 
  • Collaborative R&D and cross-border partnerships often lack consistent controls, opening doors to insider threats, unauthorised access, and IP leakage. How well do you know who is working for you remotely halfway across the world?  

Business-critical assets are progressively becoming digital, which is inherently making them more vulnerable to attacks.  

If you fail to secure your innovations from the outset, you are not protecting your future trade position.

The UK’s Secure Innovation guidance, developed by the NPSA and NCSC, outlines a clear framework to help tech firms protect their most sensitive work from the start. 

Key principles include: 

  1. Identify What Needs Protecting 

Identify the intellectual property, data, and emerging technologies that adversaries would target. Assume interest, even if you have not scaled yet. 

  1. Establish Clear Security Ownership 

Security is not just a technical task; it must be owned at the executive level, with defined accountability across the business, regardless of what you outsource. 

  1. Secure People and Systems 

Your developers, researchers, and partners are often the primary attack targets. Vet personnel monitor behaviours and enforce least privilege access. 

  1. Protect Intellectual Property  

Secure your code, designs, and research from creation through to deployment. Embed access controls, encrypt assets, and use secure development practices. 

  1. Prepare for Commercial Scale 

Build security into your business model from supplier terms and investor due diligence to export controls and global partnerships. 

Why does it matter? 

Digital trust is becoming a condition of market access. 

As the UK expands its trade portfolio, signing digital trade agreements, forming Artificial Intelligence alliances, and participating in multilateral forums, organisations that can demonstrate secure innovation will move faster and further.  

Investors, partners, and regulators increasingly demand assurance, not just ambition. 

Without it, businesses risk being excluded from sensitive deals, restricted by export rules, or undercut by more trusted competitors.

Five Ways UK Tech Businesses Can Get Ahead 

  1. Make Security a Feature of Innovation 

Position your security posture as part of your value proposition, especially in AI, quantum, and sensitive IP environments. 

  1. Use Assurance as a Market Signal 

Demonstrate adherence to Secure Innovation principles, industry certifications, and proactive threat management. 

  1. Educate Investors and Partners 

Build awareness of security risks and requirements among VCs, supply chain stakeholders, and collaborators. 

  1. Embed Security in International Strategy 

Apply export controls, vet international partners & stakeholders, and align with country regulations before they become blockers. 

  1. Contribute to Ecosystem Maturity 

Share lessons learned, participate in standards development, and engage with business forums and trade bodies to raise the bar. 

Innovation Without Security is Risk at Scale 

The next generation of digital trade will be fuelled by edge technologies. Only the organisations that secure their innovation from day one will be trusted to lead. 

UK firms have an opportunity to establish a global standard by not just developing transformative technologies but also protecting them with equal intensity. 

This is no longer a compliance issue! 

It is a marker of credibility, competitiveness, and commercial readiness on a global scale. 

Get in Touch 

If you are developing or scaling emerging tech and want to sense-check your security posture or just want to have a chat about your current initiatives, please feel free to reach out. 

Additionally, we are able to support funded assessments through available grants for reviews aligned to assurance schemes such as Cyber Essentials and the NPSA/NCSC Secure Innovation framework for eligible businesses. 

If this is something you may be interested in, please get in touch. 

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Meet the team 

Sabina Ciofu

Sabina Ciofu

Associate Director – International, techUK

Daniel Clarke

Daniel Clarke

Policy Manager for International Policy and Trade, techUK

Theophile Maiziere

Theophile Maiziere

Policy Manager - EU, techUK

Lewis Walmesley-Browne

Lewis Walmesley-Browne

Head of Market Access and Consumer Tech, techUK

Tess Newton

Team Assistant, Policy and Public Affairs, techUK

 

Authors

Paras Shah CISSP

Paras Shah CISSP

Managing Consultant, Cyber Services , Moore Clearcomm