Every business in southern Wales to get access to Police CyberAlarm

Tarian Regional Organised Crime Unit has today announced that every business and organisation in the region can now get access to a free tool called Police CyberAlarm, designed to help them understand and monitor the threats they face from malicious cyber activity.

Funded by the UK Government, Police CyberAlarm acts like a ‘CCTV camera’ monitoring the traffic seen by a businesses’ connection to the internet. It will detect and provide regular reports of suspected malicious activity, enabling a business to take steps to improve its cyber resilience.

Once a business or organisation becomes a Police CyberAlarm member, they will need to install the ‘CyberAlarm Virtual Server’ which will then collect and process traffic logs identifying suspicious activity from the firewall. Police CyberAlarm does not see any content. It monitors the logs relating to the traffic to identify suspicious activity. It is designed to protect personal data, trade secrets and intellectual property.

A Police CyberAlarm Member will benefit from regular reports detailing suspicious and potentially malicious attack activity on their firewall/internet gateway. It will show how they are being attacked and from where so they can improve their cyber resilience. It will also help law enforcement identify current threats and take enforcement action against cyber criminals.

Police CyberAlarm can benefit any business with a computer network including SMEs, organisations, public and private sector, charities, education establishments and local government.

Detective Chief Inspector Steven Maloney said, “The threat of cyber-attacks against businesses is increasing and police and industry need to work together to combat this threat. Police CyberAlarm is a great example of what can be achieved when policing and private industry work together.

We know that the average cost of a cyber-attack to a small business is around £11,000 and there are thousands of successful attacks every day. Cyber Security should be a priority for every single business no matter how big or small that business is.

“This is a police led project which businesses can trust. There is no catch to signing up, it is being offered at no cost and we want to get as many businesses as possible across the southern Wales region to join.

“The more members we have, the more data we get which will provide law enforcement with a much richer intelligence picture about the current and emerging threats businesses are facing. The data will also be presented back to members in the form of regular reports to help them take steps to improve their cyber security. I urge businesses to sign up and take advantage of all Police CyberAlarm has to offer.”

Businesses can sign up on the cyberalarm.police.uk/#join website. They will then receive a unique code which once added to the website will provide access to full instructions and how to install Police CyberAlarm.