We are committed to keeping you up to date with the latest, secure advice, regardless of what size your business is. Please take time to reflect on these different current areas for potential fraud and think how these could affect your business. Whilst most people are behaving responsibly, sadly as we know there are fraudsters seeking to exploit these times when businesses may be feeling unsure or working in different environments.

 

This guidance is crucial if you are in business and please take a few minutes to read this. Whether you are managing online demand and most importantly, if your colleagues and others in your team working remotely then please read again the latest advice here on mandate fraud and trading securely.

 

If you are having a conference call please make sure that your team knows about the latest scams and it is much better to safe rather than to make a rash decision.

 

Your Cyber Resilience centre will keep you up to date with all the trusted guidance as it becomes available so please add us to your news feed by following us on social media. Thank you for your support in helping to keep us all safe at this time

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As part of the current situation, BRIM is pleased to support the critical role that the Cyber Resilience Centres [CRCs] will play in carrying National messages to the different levels of business within each regional business community.

 

Not all 10 centres are live yet, and so businesses may elect to follow guidance from their nearest Centre. 

 

BRIM is working with NPCC, who are in constant contact with NCSC regarding this. The IASME network are also key to supporting business during this time  and these Trusted Partners links (Cyber Essentials Certifying Bodies) local to each Centre will also be made available on Centre websites, as part of the wider Trusted network. This will help businesses find relevant information quickly.

 

Where there are new core messages the CRCs and BRIM will be updating further on these, but it will be critical to stay with the agreed and approved messages for obvious reasons. BRIM is here to support Centre Teams as needed, and is only taking guidance from NPCC and NCSC in support of the threats rather than other messaging. So Centres, please let BRIM know what you need.

 

Please pick up the phone if BRIM can help further in the interim and we will keep in close contact as this situation unfolds.

 

Should you wish to send this email on to your Boards regarding your core role in this, please of course feel free to do so .

 

Key messages for business to be made aware of;

 

1. When creating new accounts, use strong and unique passwords. Don’t reuse passwords from other places. Think about adopting a password manager. Link to NCSC guidance on password management

2. Update your laptops and phones – this makes life more difficult for cyber attackers!

3. Create an emergency group chat for you and your colleagues/staff. Keep this chat only for work related announcements on closures, details etc. Do not use this group for chit-chat, have another one. Use a platform everyone has access to in your organisation if you can.

4. Stick to services you know and trust where you can. If you already use Google Hangouts, Microsoft Teams, Apple FaceTime use these large services if they’re already established in your organisation.

5. Be careful with sensitive commercial information, if you’re on conference call be careful of who is around, this is important for remote workers who aren’t working entirely from the house. If you’re sending data, keep this in your corporate domain – for example OneDrive for Microsoft users or Google Drive for GSuite.

6. Lastly, share this advice as widely as you can, with family, friends, colleagues, staff and other SME owners!

 

All Cyber Resilience Centres can be found here.