The East Midlands Cyber Resilience Centre has teamed up with Derbyshire Constabulary to deliver free cyber security guidance to local businesses within Derbyshire in a new community outreach campaign which will see the team visiting numerous towns across the county over the summer months.

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 derby businesses and local services.

The 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 partnering with Derbyshire Constabulary 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 begins on Tuesday, June 13, in Derby city centre, aided by the Derby City Centre Safer Neighbourhood Team.

During the summer months, the EMCRC team - together with local SNTs and members from the Cyber Crime Unit - will visit towns such as Chesterfield, Matlock, Bakewell, Ashbourne, Ripley, Alfreton and Swadlincote amongst others, encouraging businesses in each area to bolster their cyber resilience via 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.”

Visit the website to access free community membership, and follow the campaign on all the EMCRC's social channels: Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn.

Reporting

Report all Fraud and Cybercrime to Action Fraud by calling 0300 123 2040 or online. Forward suspicious emails to report@phishing.gov.uk. Report SMS scams by forwarding the original message to 7726 (spells SPAM on the keypad).