The Cyber Resilience Centre for the West Midlands is delighted to announce it is now working in affiliation through the centre's Business Starter Membership with Concord College. Concord College is a highly academic independent international school located in Shropshire for day and boarding students.

Detective Superintendent Vanessa Eyles, Director of the Cyber Resilience Centre for the West Midlands said: “Within the last two years we have sadly witnessed many schools, universities and colleges throughout the country become victims of cyber-attacks. It is incredibly important that as a Cyber Resilience Centre we do all we can to support every school, college or university from across the entire region.

“Through this partnership, the WMCRC and Concord College have a unique opportunity to lead by example in working together to improve the knowledge of employees and expand the range of tools and services available to the College in order to enhance their cyber resilience levels.

“I am delighted to help them in continuing to safely educate a new generation of young minds, whilst putting cyber resilience and security high on the list of priorities ensuring a secure environment for both physical and remote learning.”

Concord’s IT Department have recently facilitated the College’s Business Starter Membership. Said Concord’s IT Manager, Mr Ian Stockbridge: “Covid-19 has demonstrated how the use of technology is core to Concord being able to deliver educational excellence in a safe and productive environment for onsite and remote learning.”

As the UK government recently published its national cyber strategy for 2022, one of the main goals is to strengthen the ecosystem by bringing together industry leaders, academics, innovators, law enforcement, the national security community and others who want to collaborate on making the UK more resilient against cyber threats.

“The College has always taken cyber security seriously and continually reviews how to improve security and resilience” said Mr Stockbridge.

The College will benefit from cyber support where required, such as testing and training services, resources, news and a supporting community with shared goals.

Concord also hopes to educate its entire staff and student body on cyber resilience both in the workplace and day-to-day life, for example, on topics like the different types of security vulnerabilities, social engineering, strong passwords and their importance, various ’ishings’, social media use, keeping devices up-to-date, ransomware and more.

Mr Stockbridge added: “Education is increasingly on the radar of cyber criminals and it is the responsibility of the whole Concord community of both staff and students to remain vigilant and be on the lookout for the varied approaches adopted by these criminals so that we can better protect ourselves.

“To help here, Concord will soon be rolling out a monthly cyber security training program covering different topics to help build awareness that benefits us all.

“It makes sense for Concord College to both benefit from and contribute to such an initiative by joining the WMCRC.”

Learn more about the membership options available at www.wmcrc.co.uk/membership.