Working in partnership to improve cyber safety in Derbyshire

We've teamed up with the East Midlands Cyber Resilience Centre to visit small businesses in Derbyshire to discuss cyber crime and how to prevent it.

The campaign, which has the full backing of the Derbyshire Police and Crime Commissioner Angelique Foster, will see members from the Cyber Resilience Centre, Derbyshire Constabulary’s Cyber Crime Unit and Safer Neighbourhood Officers taking to the streets and talking to local business owners, promoting the Cyber Resilience Centre and its benefits to local businesses and services.

The East Midlands Cyber Resilience Centre (EMCRC) is a police-led initiative which utilises the skills of its business and university partners to help small and medium sized organisations to better protect themselves against online threats by offering advice, guidance and the necessary services to make themselves more secure.

Small to medium sized organisations seldom prioritise cyber security, often believing it to be unimportant or too expensive. They may be of the belief that they won’t be targeted by cyber criminals because they’re a small enterprise, when in fact the figures point to a small business in the UK being successfully attacked every 19 seconds.

It’s hoped that by working together, our business communities will be confident that this police-backed campaign is important, trustworthy and worthwhile, leading them to take advantage of the EMCRC’s free community membership.

The campaign began on Tuesday 13 June, in Ripley and will continue throughout the summer. during which the EMCRC team – together with local SNTs and members from the Cyber Crime Unit – will visit towns such as Chesterfield, Matlock, Bakewell, Ashbourne, Alfreton and Swadlincote amongst others, encouraging businesses in each area to bolster their cyber resilience via their free community membership, dispelling the myth that basic cyber security measures are expensive.

Detective Inspector Colin Ellis from the EMCRC, said: “This is a really important campaign which will by raising awareness of online crime, help to better protect our business communities and important local services . That’s why the Police and Crime Commissioner Angelique Foster and Derbyshire Constabulary are fully supporting us.

“Cybercrime is not just a big business problem. On a daily basis it affects far more of our small businesses, charities, schools and other organisations, but these attacks don’t get the media coverage that the big businesses get. That’s why it’s important to make our local businesses aware of the threat of cyber-crime and help them become better protected.”

For more information on the East Midlands Cyber Resilience Centre and to access free community membership, visit their website: www.emcrc.co.uk.

For all the latest updates about the campaign, please visit the East Midland Cyber Resilience Centre's Facebook and Twitter pages.