North Wales Cyber Security Conference

North Wales Police Cyber Crime Team in partnership with North Wales Police & Crime Commissioner and Wrexham Glyndwr University held a large scale cyber security event.

Held on Wednesday 14^th June at Wrexham Glyndwr University, the conference was attended by approximately 90 people including guest speakers from the National Cyber Security Centre, North West Regional Organised Crime Unit, Cyber Wales, Cyber Resilience Centre for Wales, Get Safe Online and Wrexham Glyndwr University all contributing to the day.

Guests included North Wales Chief Constable Amanda Blakeman, Police & Crime Commissioner Andy Dundobbin, Deputy Police & Crime Commissioner Wayne Jones, Vice Chancellor of Wrexham Glyndwr University, Detective Inspector Chris McClellan from North West Regional Organised Crime Unit amongst guests attending from Gwent Police, Cheshire Police and Greater Manchester Police and the College of Policing.

The conference focused on a number of cyber security aspects including supporting Welsh businesses and organisations with cyber security, security advice to avoid phishing, sharing real-life stories from victims of crime and how Glyndwr is helping develop the next generation of computer professionals to help keep North Wales cyber safe.

The afternoon comprised of breakout sessions for guests which included an education session on ransomware, a chance for organisations to test and practise their response to a cyber-attack and a cyber escape room experience hosted by the North Wales Cyber Crime Team.

DC Roheryn Evans from the Cyber Crime Team said “Cybercrime is one of the fastest growing crimes affecting everybody from large and small businesses to charities, community groups and members of the public.  Whereas large businesses often have the ability to employ an IT team, small businesses and charities don’t usually have the budget for a specific IT dept.  Even though a business may be small, they still employ staff members and may still have a considerable turn over.

To help raise awareness of the risk and threat of cybercrime, our Cybercrime team hosted and event for SMEs and charities from North Wales to highlight that cyber security doesn’t need to be expensive and how just taking some simple steps can help protect your organisation.  Guest speakers included the National Cyber Security Centre, who spoke about their free tools to help small businesses.  We also spoke about the tremendous impact of cybercrime and how that can affect people long after the event. 

We were joined by the North West Regional Organised Crime Unit, who gave us top tips for identifying spam and phishing messages and how you can report those messages to the NCSC for future blocking.  Followed by discussions from Cyber Wales who spoke about securing your accounts, Get Safe Online who spoke about the importance of training your staff and the Cyber Reslience Centre for Wales who specialise in helping SMEs and charities in improving their cyber security. 

Finally, we heard from Leanne Davies from Wrexham university’s Cyber Security and Computing dept about what they’re doing to teach the next generation of cyber security specialists.

If you’re a small business and you don’t know who to turn to for help, get in touch as there is help available.”