Bournemouth Businesses Unite in the Fight Against Cyber Crime.

Two leading companies have joined forces in association with the leading Cyber Security Unit at Bournemouth University to help corporations and SME (Small Business Owners) crackdown on cyber-crime – a problem estimated to cost the global economy around £266 billion.

The A-One Insurance Group, a family of insurance brokers based around the south, has teamed up with IT Support Business (ITSB) which is the IT department for more than 100 SME’s and deal with cyber threats on a daily basis, to deliver the first complete, tailored solution to protect companies against cyber fraud at an affordable rate.

Latest research shows that 81 percent of businesses suffered a security breach in the last 12 months, but 98 percent of large corporations and SMEs don’t have adequate insurance cover.

Not only are they joining forces to help you with insurance and IT they are also creating a series of FREE Cyber Crime events which will help you understand how to protect your business and what you need to implement to ensure you are adhering to the Government rules and regulations.

Said Jason Daniells from A-One Insurance Group: “Whatever the size of your business, it is all about managing risk, and the prime tool in businesses currently is your computer - whether it’s your PC, laptop or mobile phone, as well as any data you hold. Your essential business tools are all at risk from cyber criminals, from data being stolen and phishing attacks to social engineering.”

Lee Dredge from ITSB adds: “The consequences of a cyber-attack on your business can be crippling, whether it’s a cyber-criminal that takes down your website or network, or when a hacker invades your system and steals data exposing your client’s details – especially when you consider the fines for such breaches. It’s not only the disruption to your business but the damage to your reputation, the cost of legal fees and regulatory fines”

So what do you do?

The first step in the fight against cyber fraud is to understand where the business is vulnerable by having a clear idea of what systems are in place, how they are protected and where the weaknesses are. For example, old servers connected to the network, emails being sent to the wrong recipient or flawed security software.

Lee Dredge states: “We provide a service that checks how your business measures up. The vulnerability software tool was originally launched and developed by Titania, however ITSB (with the guidance from Bournemouth University) have developed this tool to make it more efficient. Our Cyber experts will review, analyse and test all systems to remove vulnerabilities to protect the day to day operations of your business.”

Adds Jason Daniells: “I am pleased to be partnering with ITSB as their Cyber ‘MOT’ for businesses ensure that systems are protected in the best possible way.”

Lee Dredge adds: “We have joined forces with A-One Insurance as it is vital that in the event of a cyber breach you have the right level of insurance cover in place giving you full peace of mind. We offer a choice of three packages tailored to meet your needs via a series of questions ranging from business operations, the type of data held and the number of records available.”

Dr Christopher Richardson from the Cyber Security Unit at Bournemouth University says: “The BU Cyber Security Unit is delighted to support and continue the research into better protection of SMEs. This vulnerability assessment service provides the assurance of business processes and addresses the need to meet the good practice of the Government’s ‘Cyber Essentials scheme’.

By deploying these controls, organisations can defend against the most common form of basic cyber-attacks originating from the Internet.”
For more information on securing your business from cybercrime visit our website www.cybersecurebusiness.com or call 01202 237393 to register your details for notifications and information on our next events and how you can get protection.