A police-backed cyber security organisation is asking Cumbria businesses and charities to make cyber training a key business priority for this year.

The North West Cyber Resilience Centre (NWCRC) supports businesses, not-for-profit organisations and charities across Cumbria with fully-funded  training to increase their cyber security and stay safe against cyber fraudsters.

New Government statistics, released in April, have highlighted the importance of cyber threats facing small businesses and charities, with more than 612,000 UK businesses and 57,000 charities reporting a cyber breach or attack over the past 12 months. This equates to 43% of all businesses and 28% of all charities in the UK.

Cumbria’s tourism and hospitality sector is already highly targeted with multiple phishing and impersonation scams. Phishing remains the most frequent cyber attempt, with hotels and their customers frequently hit with impersonation messages purporting to be from booking platforms. The Government’s recent Cyber Security Breaches Survey found that 38% of businesses and 25% of charities across the UK have suffered a phishing attack in the last year.

Just one click onto a phishing email can take down a whole IT system, so awareness and insight training is vital for cyber resilience. This also demonstrates that every employee or volunteer needs to understand what phishing is and how to recognise it.

Detective Inspector Dan Giannasi heads up the NWCRC and said: “We’re calling on all small businesses and organisations across Cumbria to commit to making cyber resilience a high priority this year.

“Our free training sessions are perfect for non-technical people to understand the basic steps they can take to keep their business and supply chain safe from cyber criminals.”

The NWCRC offers free cyber security training sessions for all businesses across Cumbria, particularly tourism and hospitality businesses. The free training and support is also open to charities and voluntary groups, as well as all sectors such as  housing associations, care homes and other not-for-profit organisations.

To book a 1-2-1 chat with the team to discuss the fully funded support that's available to Cumbria businesses, click here 

Sign up for more information: https://www.nwcrc.co.uk/mailinglist.

Or contact info@nwcrc.co.uk to book a free cyber awareness training session.