The Greater Manchester police and Manchester Digital join forces to open a centre dedicated to providing advice and support to safeguard businesses from cyber threats.
In an effort to reduce the vulnerability of businesses in Greater Manchester, a new not-for-profit venture has launched in the form of the Cyber Resilience Centre.
With backing from the Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA), the initiative was launched Friday last week (8th November) and will bolster the region’s knowledge and strength in cyber-security.
Aiming to support 150 Greater Manchester businesses in its first year, local students are being offered work experience to help increase the workforce and reach of the centre.
Its main aim is to provide advice and support pertaining to cyber-security and help protect local businesses from cyber-crime. Experts trained in the subject are available to support visitors both before and after they have suffered a cyber attack. Member-businesses will also have access to free training and tools to help them remain safe online.
One of the key minds behind this venture, Detective Superintendent Neil Jones gives his thoughts.
The new Cyber Resilience Centre is an innovative and crucial initiative for Greater Manchester in assisting businesses to become more resilient to cyber-crime
The estimated cost of cyber-crime across Greater Manchester is in the region of £860m per year, despite up to 80% of cyber-crime being preventable. Our aim is to substantially increase the take-up of effective Cybersecurity measures to assisting businesses to be resilient to cyber-crime and safeguard the Greater Manchester business community.
We believe this work, as well as helping businesses across the region, will support the capability and development of the cyber sector in Greater Manchester by improving the volume of reported attacks and directing support to the cyber security businesses in the region.
Since the UK government outlined its “10 steps to cyber security” (originally released in 2012, last updated November 2018) just over half of UK businesses implement five or more of its steps. The Cyber Resilience Centre aims for 100% of Greater Manchester businesses to reach or surpass this level over the next few years.
As our companies and economies become digital in nature, securing our organisations against cyber-attacks and data breaches has become one of the most important business issues facing organisations. At CGI we help a broad range of clients manage their cyber security challenges with a business focused approach. We are supporting the Manchester Digital Cyber Resilience Centre as we believe it will provide a valuable contribution to help businesses in the region identify how to improve their cyber resilience
Richard Holmes – Vice President of Cyber Security Services, CGI
This marks yet another step in the right direction, education and prevention are key in the fight against cyber-crime. As good as modern security technology is, it takes educated and security-aware staff to implement and configure correctly.
At Phishing Tackle, we know all too well that security technology is often left incorrectly configured, demonstrated by our free Domain Spoofing Test which currently gets past around 50% of users security systems.
Security Awareness Training remains one of the most cost-effective methods of boosting cyber-security within your business. Have a look at our free Click-Prone® Test to find out how many of your staff are susceptible to a phishing attack and learn how you can reduce this number today.
