Police, industry and academia stage first cyber resilience summit

The landmark event, which will be hosted by the City of London Police Commissioner Angela McLaren in her role as national lead for cyber and economic crime, will take place on Monday (October 10) at the offices of Microsoft in London.

The summit will involve the police leads of each regional CRC, the regional advisory board chairs from industry and National Cyber Resilience Centre Group (NCRCG) ambassadors, as well as representatives from wider policing.

The project to establish a CRC in every region was launched in 2020 by the National Cybercrime Programme to help smaller organisations make their cyber operations safer, more secure and more resilient. They do this with cyber security students making cyber resilience advice and support affordable and accessible for smaller organisations.

The network was expanded in 2021 with the launch of the NCRCG, a not-for-profit company, funded and supported by the Home Office, policing and ambassador partners, set up to strengthen the reach of cyber resilience across the business community.

Ms McLaren said: “The CRC network has grown exponentially in a short space of time with several of the regional centres supporting over 1,000 local businesses who have signed up as members.

“The CRC Summit is the first opportunity to bring all the regional CRCs together with our national ambassadors. This is a great opportunity to develop the partnership between police and industry, share good practice and develop our plans moving forward.”

NCRCG under Cyber PATH is building a national talent pipeline of students to equip the next generation of those who will tackle cybercrime with the essential skills, knowledge and on-the-job training they need.

Cyber PATH and the CRCs work closely with local universities to handpick the talented cadre of students, who work alongside senior cyber security practitioners and police officers to deliver high-quality, affordable and tailored cyber resilience services to smaller organisations.

Detective Superintendent Nick Bell, chief executive officer of the NCRCG and national policing director for the CRCs, said: “We are delighted that all those involved in the national and regional development of the cyber resilience centre network will be coming together for this summit.

“There is a great deal of work underway on this vital issue for businesses, their supply chains and ultimately their customers – involving police, some brilliant private sector ambassadors and academia up and down the country.

“This summit will show how far we’ve already come and help us plan for how we continue to accelerate the support we can give businesses across the UK in tackling cybercrime.”