How the NWCRC has been helping small businesses in Greater Manchester protect against cyber crime

By Detective Inspector Dan Giannasi, Head of Cyber and Innovation at the North West Cyber Resilience Centre. October 2023.

Cyber fraud and cyber crime are on the rise, with 79% of all businesses having experienced a phishing attack last year. The Government’s Cyber Security Breaches Survey 2023 also found that a third of all businesses had identified a cyber breach in the previous 12 months. As fraudsters grow more sophisticated with techniques and technology, the risks to businesses are growing all the time.

The North West Cyber Resilience Centre (NWCRC) was set up in 2019, as a partnership between regional police forces and tech trade body Manchester Digital. The not-for-profit organisation was set up to help small businesses across Greater Manchester with free or affordable training and resources to protect against the growing threat of cyber crime.

Almost four years later, our team is growing and we have just celebrated reaching 1000 members across the North West. Our ambition is that every single business within our region will have the skills and knowledge to protect themselves from online attacks to make the region one of the safest places to live, work and do business.

My advice for businesses worried about cyber security are:

1. We also recommend that all businesses also use and enforce strong passwords based on using three random words, such as “Plantmouse5grown”. Using a reputable password manager is also a good way of having multiple passwords.

2. All businesses need to make sure they have multi-factor authentication set up on all accounts. This adds an important layer of defence to stop attackers even if they have your password.

3. Ensure all your hardware, software and operating systems are updated whenever a new update is available. This is really easy to do and is really important so should be enforced across all your business devices.  

4. And lastly, I always advise businesses to help raise awareness of cyber security issues within their teams. Most cyber breaches occur because of phishing emails, which are designed to look like real genuine emails. This can be avoided through better education and awareness.

We offer a range of affordable offerings for businesses to help them become cyber secure, which includes: security awareness training, simulated phishing exercise, website and network vulnerability exercises, digital footprint assessments and cyber risk exposure assessment. We also work closely with businesses who have suffered a cyberbreach to help them become more cyber secure.

Having now achieved 1000 members, our team is continuing to grow within Greater Manchester and expand our reach across the North West to Lancashire, Merseyside, Cheshire and Cumbria.

The Greater Manchester Cyber Security Programme offered up 300 free memberships to businesses across the region. The funding came from Greater Manchester Police and the Greater Manchester Combined Authority, which is taken from proceeds of crime and re-invested into the community. All of these places were claimed really quickly, which shows how much education and training is needed by SMEs in our region.

Through the free Greater Manchester programme, our NWCRC team provided over 200 hours of cyber security awareness training to employees from over 300 businesses  and engaged in 80 hours of support  sessions, from July 2021 to March 2023.

Businesses who engaged with the programme reported that they felt more equipped to deal with cyber-attacks, and many had taken vital steps such as training staff or introducing new policies since being part of the training.

For more information about cyber security via the North West Cyber Resilience Centre website.