A couple of weeks back, we were talking to a contact who’d started a brilliant new business -protecting kids from cyber threats - finding out as much as we could about what he did, and how. With the zoom clock ticking and time coming to a close, we enquired “Is there anything else we should have asked you?”

The business owner paused, thought, and said “You should have asked me why.” And he then proceeded to tell us about his own childhood experiences, and why they’d made him so determined to protect others. Suddenly, we realised that this was more than a business for him: it was a passion, done for the right reasons, from a really genuine and powerful ethical base. A bit of a ‘wow’ moment.

Which made us reflect: did we ever talk about our own ‘why’?

The problem with our police/ private model is that it’s complicated. We can spend a lot of time confusing people about our public sector funding streams, about why we’re a not for profit, and about a business model which is genuinely unique. But when push comes to shove, none of that matters too much.

What matters is why we do it.

We run this business because we want people to be safe.

At heart, we joined public service many years ago as a way to protect people, and the cyber resilience centre network is simply an extension of that. We want it to protect as many businesses and charities as it can, and (with no apologies) we want everyone to know about us so that we can make that happen.

We want charities and small businesses not to be knocked sideways because some low-life has stolen their logins, taken down their websites, or hacked their social accounts. Times are hard already. And we hear too often from people in our region who’ve lost time and money unnecessarily.

We want everyone to understand the basic things they can do to help themselves, because it frustrates the heck out of us when a school or charity gets hacked for want of some five-minute fixes. We want them to understand that this stuff is do-able, and that you don’t have to be a rocket scientist. There are some amazing people like you out there doing some amazing things, and you shouldn’t be hindered by criminals.

So if you heard of us, but struggled with the what and the how, please give a bit of thought to our ‘why’. And if it feels like something you can buy into, please help us to spread the word. It matters.

Thanks to @adam_bolas at @digital_woof for a valuable lesson.