Police & Government Cyber Crime Support for Local Organisations

Published: 11 September 2025

Policing on hand to help businesses in the fight against cybercrime. For criminals, the size of your business does not matter, there is nothing small about small businesses.

The phrase fail to prepare, prepare to fail, is very fitting when it comes to SMEs and cyber, as sooner or later your business will become a victim of a cyber-attack if you fail to put defences in place to stop criminals.

Cyber security is not just for the IT team; everybody involved in a business should understand the basics and the role they play in keeping the organisation safe. Attacks can lead to customers losing trust, negative financial consequences, or reputational damage.

Attacks are often completely preventable; the following 9 simple steps could be all it takes to protect your business:

All businesses, regardless of size, should take regular backups of their important data, and make sure that these backups are recent and can be restored. By doing this, you're ensuring your business can still function following the impact of flood, fire, physical damage or theft. Furthermore, if you have backups of your data that you can quickly recover, you can still operate if your data gets encrypted by a criminal.
Keep your mobile devices (smartphones and tablets) safe by switching on PIN/password/fingerprint recognition and by using the automatic update option where available.
Prevent malware damage by using antivirus software on all devices, only install approved software and prevent users from downloading third-party apps from unknown sources.
Ensure staff don’t browse the web or check emails from an account with administrator privileges.
For all your IT equipment (tablets, smartphones, laptops and PCs), make sure that the software and firmware is always kept up to date with the latest versions from software developers, hardware suppliers and vendors. Applying these updates (a process known as patching) is one of the most important things you can do to improve security.
Avoid using predictable passwords (such as dates, family and pet names), try 3 random words.
Use 2-step verification on all your accounts. 2SV requires 2 different methods to 'prove' your identity before you can use a service, generally a password plus one other method. This could be a code that's sent to your smartphone (or a code that's generated from a bank's card reader) that you must enter in addition to your password.
When you use public Wi-Fi hotspots (e.g. hotels or coffee shops), there is no way to easily find out who controls the hotspot. The simplest precaution is not to connect to the Internet using hotspots, and instead use your mobile 3G or 4G mobile network, which will have built-in security.

With cybercrime now accounting for over 50% of all recorded crime, the Home Office and policing set up 9 Cyber Resilience Centres covering the whole of England and Wales. The aim is to give every business access to skills and knowledge to help protect themselves from online attacks, helping it to be one of the safest places to live, work, and do business.

Joining is simple and only requires a few details to enable us to send you a free information pack that includes resources designed to improve your online security, from checklists to Incident Response templates, there's something for everyone - www.secrc.police.uk/join.