What is Cyber Resilience as opposed to Cyber Security?

This month, the Cyber Resilience Centre for London was launched, joining a network of other Centres around the country to make the UK one of the safest places to do business online. In the first of a series of regular blogs, we’re going to start by answering a question we often get asked about our name - why ‘Cyber Resilience’ as opposed to ‘Cyber Security’?

In simple terms, ‘cyber security’ is about putting in place a range of preventative measures that reduce the vulnerability of an organisation to an attack or breach. ‘Cyber Resilience’ on the other hand goes beyond this and focuses on the ability of an organisation to quickly recover from an attack or breach, thereby minimising disruption to the business.

With 48% of small firms and 59% of medium-sized firms having suffered at least one cyber-attack or breach in the past 12 months¹, the ability to recover effectively – and quickly, has become increasingly important. To put this into context, a recent poll² of more than 500 business leaders found that nearly a quarter of UK SMEs (equivalent to approximately 1.3m companies) were likely to go out of business if they were forced to deal with the average cost of a cyber-attack. An astonishing figure that underlines the impact a cyber-attack or breach can have on our economy.

So, how does the CRC for London help SMEs improve their cyber resilience? At the Centre, we believe it’s essential for every business to ‘get the basics right’. This means taking simple steps to reduce vulnerability, but also making sure they know what to do in the event of an attack or breach so that they can get themselves back online as quickly as possible.

To achieve this ambition and in support of our mission ‘To improve the resilience of London’s business community’, we’ve developed a range of resources that we’ll be rolling out over the coming months. Built around 10 cyber resilience ‘themes’, each one is designed to educate, inform and demystify the cyber landscape for small businesses. Our first monthly theme focuses on ‘The Importance of Training Your Staff’. Look out for our first ’60 second video short’ in particular.

We’ll also be launching our ‘In The Community’ Outreach programme where we’ll be visiting businesses across the Capital to talk to them about all things cyber. Keep a look out on our website and social media channels for further details.

For further information about our ‘Getting the Basics Right’ campaign, please visit our website – www.londoncrc.co.uk

Finally, if you are a business in London, please take a moment to subscribe to our free membership scheme. As well as a monthly newsletter from the Centre, we’ll also provide a summary about the latest threats to businesses in London from the City of London Police, Metropolitan Police and the National Cyber Security Centre.