Cyber resilience centres are a national policing network – and there’s one for the South West.
They are essentially crime prevention businesses for a digital age. Led by serving officers and staff, their Home Office funding enables them to provide a swathe of free guidance and support to businesses, charities and the public sector. Getting small businesses up to speed with cyber basics that schools simply don’t teach, is an essential part of their offering. But their status as independent regional companies also permits them to do things that core policing can’t, and with a student workforce and commercial partners, they can provide everything from a health check on systems security, to signposting on how to recover from a cyber attack.
Each cyber resilience centre has formed strong business partnerships within their own regions and will have a network of businesses and charities already leaning on them for support. The CRC’s are keen to do whatever they can to engage the business community more widely. Given that two in five businesses spotted an attempted cyber breach last year, their offer is an essential one. What does this mean for you? If you’re considering events focused on the business community or third sector, your local CRC is a great example of what policing is doing to counter crime, and they’ll invariably be happy to support you with a presentation. And if you need to know more about what’s going on in the world of cyber, they can brief you, or provide connections to some of the sector’s leading lights within your region.
In return, the CRC’s have two core goals. Firstly, they want to recruit as many small businesses and charities as they can, in order to make them safer. And secondly, they want to speak with bigger companies who might be able to support them financially or through other contacts.
You can find contact details for your local centre at https://www.swcrc.co.uk/ They’ll be very happy to talk with you and to explore the potential for mutual support.