Thanks to everyone who attended our Thinking Clearly about Cyber Crime Seminar today at CityLabs in Manchester.

Cyber crime is the biggest technical issue facing professional services businesses today. We all store and process personally identifiable data about our clients, whether that’s stored in our email, our CRM systems, or other industry-specific software systems. We may have access to client computer systems, client funds, and other priveliged information which could be valuable to online criminals.

We heard from a great line up of speakers:

Detective Constable Paul Taylor – Greater Manchester police

From Greater Manchester Police’s Cyber Crime unit – a dedicated unit within GMP who we’ve had the privilege of

working with on a case before. DC Taylor explained what Cyber Crime currently looks like in the North West and some of the ways the Police and their partners are working to reduce it.

Jennie Williams – TITAN (North West Regional Organised Crime Unit)

Jennie explained the role of the NWROCU (link to their website) in education and prevention against cyber crime, in conjunction with key advice from the NCSC (link)

Brian Lightowler QG Management Standards

QG Management Standards are one of the organisations responsible for issuing Cyber Essentials Certification, and building an infrastructure surrounding Cyber Essentials in the UK

Stuart Lee – Web4Law and a Lexcel Assessor

Stuart talked about Cyber Crime as a strategic and compliance risk, not just a technical problem for the IT department, and how Cyber Crime impacts on firms wanting to achieve or renew their Lexcel certification.

James Balderstone – Lucid Networks

As a Cyber Essentials ACE practitioner, James outlined how a good practitioner can help firms of all sizes achieve and maintain compliance.

All in all, a very interesting morning!

And a final thanks to our colleague and Commercial manager James Alty for volunteering to distribute the leftover sandwiches from our excellent breakfast buffet to Manchester’s homeless community.

It always concerns us when food goes to waste at the many events and conferences we attend – surely best that those who are most in need benefit from our good fortune.