FAQs
Good question. We hate websites where you can’t see what the heck is on offer. So: we give you the basic cyber information that you were never taught at school, and a bite-sized programme to walk you through implementing it in a few minutes each week. We can support you if you get stuck, and we’ll provide a monthly update on all the latest threats, so that you know what to update, avoid, and delete. Plus free webinars, to demystify things you’d like to know about – like how to make your website safer, or how criminals target you online. We also offer cyber services direct to your business, if you need them, from ethical hacking to staff training.
Let’s face it, you know people who’ve had their social media accounts hacked, been tricked by scam emails, and seen their websites taken down. You might even be one of them. One in three businesses spots an attempted attack each year (government figures). Cyber resilience is about helping you put basic things in place that make you so much safer, without being deeply technical – and about enabling you to recover more quickly if the worst does happen. You don’t have to spend money, you don’t have to learn code, you just have to take a few small steps that will make a massive difference. If only you knew someone who could tell you what those steps were…
Organisations in the South West. So: sole traders, businesses, charities, football clubs, parish councils… if you have IT, we’re happy to help. You need to be based in the South West, or do a chunk of business down here, and by “South West” we mean those areas covered by Dorset, Wiltshire, Devon and Cornwall, Gloucestershire and Avon and Somerset police forces. We also work with larger businesses – whether collaborating with IT companies to build up a network of expertise, or partnering with large regional organisations and business groups to spread our safety net as wide as possible.
If you prefer, do think of us as extremely expensive. It’s just that someone else is footing the bill for you. We’re paid for by the Home Office, regional policing, and private sector sponsors like Leonardo cyber and security, who want to protect local businesses. We do offer some paid services, but they’re a tiny part of what we do, and they’re important solely because they let small organisations access support that would otherwise be beyond them. To be very clear: we don’t regard our members as a meaningful income source.
Almost certainly. We’ve links with the local police force teams who support individuals with their cyber security, perhaps in a school or community group setting. Drop us a line via the contact form, and we’re happy to put them in touch. And we’re part of a national police-led network, with similar centres now covering the whole of England and Wales. You can find your local centre at https://nationalcrcgroup.co.uk/regional-centres/ .
Cyber PATH is how we get you services at an affordable rate. We partner with regional universities to find the best and brightest students, who we check, train and supervise in the delivery of specific cyber support. Supervised by cyber professionals, they provide services like testing the security of your website, at a significantly lower rate than you’d generally access. This makes investing in cyber security much more affordable for smaller organisations, without compromising on the quality or impartiality of the work done. From technical services, to policy reviews and social media research, we have a downloadable brochure giving you the full range of services on offer.
Cyber PATH is intended as great place to start understanding and improving your cyber resilience. Everyone delivering a service for you is trained in that service, and works to a very specific methodology. We can’t offer open-ended support for all your cyber needs, but we do have a network of great cyber companies operating in the area who all have recognised badges. We’re happy to introduce you to them if you need.
If you’re a big business, we’re happy to work with you. We’d love to educate all those smaller partners who email you on a daily basis, with attachments that might or might not be harmful. Herd immunity is important. And we can let you know about police-led opportunities to network and protect your systems. We also love to talk to groups about how to improve their cyber resilience, and we don’t generally charge to do it. Lastly, if you’re an ‘umbrella’ group – a business improvement district, a local chamber of commerce, or you’re supporting local charities – we’re very happy to keep you and your members updated on cyber risks. Drop us a line and we’ll talk.
No, we’re not. We’re a business which is owned by regional policing, and run by serving officers and staff on their behalf. Being a business, we can offer a wider range of services, but we’re still essentially about crime prevention, and we are not here to make a profit. We complement our policing colleagues because we have an ongoing relationship with our members, and can do more: but they haven expertise which we don’t, and cover a non-business audience too. All of our guidance will be based on the wise words of the National Cyber Security Council, the government body focused on… well, cyber security. And we work closely with a number of cyber partners, including various cyber clusters that bring together good people to develop skills and the cyber sector in their area. In short, we link in with them all, to make sure that we continue to do something unique. There’s only one of us.