We're extremely pleased to have bolstered our Board with the appointment of Kevin Modiri, legal expert and Partner at Nelsons Solicitors, who recently joined us as a Community Ambassador.

With cyber attacks continuing to hit the headlines, the need for greater support and advice is ever growing. To meet this demand, the we have been visiting local organisations to raise awareness about the national network of CRCs, which educate organisations on the risk of cyber-attacks, encouraging more to take preparatory steps and complete training.

As part of this process, we have appointed Kevin Modiri, a partner and solicitor specialising in data protection and privacy claims of leading East Midlands law firm Nelsons, as a strategic adviser to our Board.

Kevin’s appointment follows Nelsons being named as a Community Ambassador last month. Community Ambassadors are local companies who understand the importance of cyber resilience and want to spread the knowledge, both within their own customers and supply chains and wherever relevant.

On his appointment, Kevin said:

“Cyber attacks continue to pose a significant threat to businesses, as client and staff information are valuable assets to cybercriminals. The scale of these incidents is at an all-time high with organisations of all sizes falling victim to such attacks. The financial and reputational damage caused by a data breach can have devastating consequences, so it is important to prepare as well as act quickly when an attack occurs.

“My day-to-day work includes advising businesses, individuals and public bodies on their legal obligations in relation to limiting any risks, proactively tackling breaches and defending proceedings against alleged breaches.

"We currently act as the emergency service when things have already happened, but I have long wanted to get more involved at an earlier stage to focus on prevention. My role with the EMCRC will help me to achieve this by supporting the board and sharing my specialist knowledge of data protection, breaches and Subject Access Requests.”

Colin Ellis, Police Delivery Lead and Managing Director of the EMCRC, added:

“Kevin is well known in the region for his work in this area and his knowledge will be invaluable not only to the board but to those businesses that approach us and need specialist advice.

“We continue to raise awareness about the support that EMCRC can provide to local businesses and are currently developing our Community Ambassador programme. Our aim is to have a range of organisations involved so that we can provide a holistic resilience offering to our current and future membership, helping us achieve our goal to keep the wider business community safe from cyber-crime.”

For more information on Nelsons, please visit www.nelsonslaw.co.uk.

To see all our board members and the EMCRC team as a whole, visit: Meet The Team.

We are looking to make further valuable additions to our CRC board - this is an opportunity for the region’s significant businesses and organisations to join together with senior law enforcement officials and government to inform regional developments on cyber resilience and reduce the risk posed by cyber criminals to their supply chains, customer bases and the wider SME community.

The CRC are interested to hear from those organisations who feel they could contribute. Contact us here if you feel you belong in that bracket.

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).