Police And Welsh Government Target Businesses Re Internet-Related Crime
The event, which took place on Tuesday 18th October, was organised to coincide with Safer Internet Day – a national drive spearheaded by Get Safe Online, to raise awareness about the risks of online crime to business and to the general public.
According to figures from Action Fraud, £3,864,402 was reported lost by businesses in South Wales to online crime between March 2015 – March 2016. The problem is getting worse, with reports of cybercrime increasing by 22 per cent across the UK compared to the previous year.
Detective Inspector Paul Peters, said: “We have developed excellent relationships with many large businesses across the region, and have formed partnerships with key intermediaries such as banks, which gives us access to decision makers within businesses.
“Our aim through this event is not to target the large blue chip companies, which do tend to have their house in order when it comes to managing the cybercrime threat, but to engage with the smaller to medium sized businesses which will not be as sophisticated in dealing with the online threat.
“I often get asked by smaller companies why would a hacker target them? The answer is simple – because they can! With new regulations coming in, businesses can no longer afford not to address this issue.”
Back in June, 2016, Get Safe Online urged businesses to do more to ensure staff across the board have appropriate online fraud awareness training. At the event they highlighted that 74% of small and medium-sized enterprises had suffered a security breach of some kind.
Speakers at the event also included representatives from the newly launched National Cyber Security Centre, Verner Parke: Director of Security Consulting for CGI who discussed the implications of the General Data protection regulations and John Davies, from Pervade Software Ltd who spoke about the three key things businesses can do to protect themselves.
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