This month we celebrated our fifth anniversary of protecting businesses from cyber crime. The North West Cyber Resilience Centre was set up in 2019, as a partnership between regional police forces and industry body Manchester Digital, as a way to help small businesses access support and training for cyber security.

Over the five years, the centre has supported more than 1,500 small businesses across the region to improve their cyber resilience and spoke at over 500 events and webinars to more than 11,000 people.

On top of that, we have also delivered 870 cyber security services to small businesses including vulnerability assessments, phishing exercises and security awareness exercises; generated over 3,200 hours of work experience for the 28 North West students that have been employed by the centre and hosted nine inspirational Student Chapter events across the region for cyber security students.

Kate Green, Deputy Mayor of Greater Manchester for Safer and Stronger Communities, said: “The work of the North West Cyber Resilience Centre (NWCRC) will continue to support our local businesses in the North West through the provision of information and services to support their operations and keep them safe.

"The NWCRC has led the way nationally, being the first Cyber Resilience Centre in the country on which the national model was based. We are proud to be pioneers and are excited to wish the NWCRC well as it embarks on the next stage of its work.

"Statistics show that 32% of businesses suffered security breaches in the last 12 months, highlighting the scale and implications of cyber threats. The cost of these breaches can be significant, impacting not only financial stability but also reputational trust.

"Fraud and cyber crime are not contained to geographical boundaries, and it is important that we continue to work with our business community and national and international partners to identify the threats and provide appropriate awareness and support to tackle this.”

Assistant Chief Constable at the North West Regional Organised Crime Unit Rowan Moore said: “Preventative action is absolutely crucial to help protect businesses from the rising tide of cyber crime.

“It has been great to see how impactful the NWCRC has been to those businesses in the North West. There have been many successes over the past five years, including the free regional programmes in Greater Manchester, Merseyside, Cheshire and the recently rolled out programmes to businesses in Lancashire and rural Cumbria. The team continues to deliver vital support to businesses who need valuable training and guidance around cyber crime.”

Katie Gallagher OBE, co-founder of the NWCRC and MD of Manchester Digital, said: “We’re proud to have supported and helped so many businesses across the whole of the North West protect themselves against cyber crime over the past five years.

“There is a really strong cyber security business community in the North West, and by continuing to work together through private and public sector partnerships, we can help small businesses stay safe against the growing threats of cyber crime and fraud.

“We’d like to thank all of our Board, Guidance Council and our stakeholders for everything they put into this organisation over the past five years.”

We also work closely with Regional Partners, who support the team with expert guidance and advice and also sit on the Guidance Council. We’d like to say a huge thanks to our current Regional Partners: Salesforce; Northrop Grumman; Siemens; Three Business; Cyber Security Professionals; 6Point6 (part of Accenture) and Chainanalysis.