Here’s a New Year’s present that could save your organisation

Here’s a New Year’s present that could save your organisation

Tuesday 6th January 2026

This message is for businesses, charities, public authorities, or organisations, large or small. If this is not you, feel free to share it with friends / colleagues as they could benefit.

Online threats such as ransomware or network breaches are disrupting organisations, with the most reported cyber crimes, being social media and email account takeovers. Whether you run a shop, café, hotel, factory, Airbnb, or maybe you are a sole trader, charitable trust, or not-for-profit and use email, social media, websites, computers, or other internet-enabled devices, the police cyber resilience centres have been created to help protect you.

It’s a public service that provides access to training, tools, and guidance that identify and fix vulnerabilities to protect data, finances, and reputation. For example, the free training is a quick and easy win and helps staff protect the company, leading to less disruption and impact; it also helps achieve data protection and GDPR requirements.

Most of us know the fundamentals:

Passwords: Make sure they aren't easy to guess, use 3 random words made up of 12+ characters

2SV: Turn on Two-Step Verification also known as 2FA or MFA wherever you can

Updates: Keep your IT systems and software up to date

Backups: Keep a copy of your important information

Training: Make sure staff know what to look out for, the wrong click of a link or download of a file, can quite literally save your IT network, or even your organisation.

After the basics, cyber security can feel complicated, expensive, or unmanageable. If you wish to improve your cyber resilience, it can be hard to figure out the next steps. Obtaining cyber security support can often be costly or beyond financial means for many. This is where the Cyber Resilience Centre for the South East can help. We are 1 of 9 Home Office funded centres across the UK, a collaboration between policing, academia, and the private sector. We provide your team with specific funded cyber security support, tailored to your particular needs.

Joining provides you with the much needed information you were never taught at school. We can support you if you get stuck, or provide you an update on the latest threats, so you know what to update, avoid, or delete. We offer free webinars to demystify things you’d like to know more about, e.g. how to make your website safer, or how criminals target you online.

Joining costs nothing and takes only a few minutes of your time. Claim your free membership now and visit www.secrc.police.uk/join

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Message Sent By
Trisha Dejesus
(Sussex Police, District Engagement Officer (DEO), Crawley and Mid Sussex)