The impact of cyber-crime in the East of England is very real, with recent significant incidents reported from the legal, education and retail sectors. The losses this has led to between January and July 2021 in the East alone is over £233m according to Action Fraud – an eyewatering amount. No business is too small, and all sectors are at risk.

With the ongoing rise in cyber attacks across UK business, education and healthcare there is an unarguable benefit in bringing together the experience and capability of those working in the cyber sector across the East. Both the cyber sector and wider business community are facing unprecedented challenges as cyber crime continues to be a daily threat; keeping up to speed with what cyber criminals are doing is a challenge for all. Cyber security is often seen as an IT or Technology problem, however we believe that it is a business or organisational issue and should be tackled collaboratively.

Cyber East is an industry body that works alongside the UK Government to develop the cyber security industry in the UK and our main aim is to partner with cyber security businesses in the East of England and provide a platform for collaboration and growth within the Cyber Security industry.
Having secured funding from the Governments Department for Culture, Media & Sport alongside the UK3C initiative (www.ukc3.co.uk) Cyber East is a cluster bringing together a team that has a presence in Norfolk, Suffolk & Cambridgeshire, and we will be growing the Cluster to cover all six counties in the East of England.

Before we say any more though, you may be asking “what is a cluster?”…well in our case we are developing a geographically concentrated group of interconnected businesses, suppliers and other bodies within and working alongside the cyber security industry. There is a real need for cyber security businesses to come together and collaborate on growing the sector, as well as raising awareness within the business community in the East and more widely around the UK.

If your organisation is working within the cyber security sector or providing services to the sector, or you have a commitment and responsibility to provide secure and safe services, solutions or products to your own customers, becoming part of the dedicated cyber security cluster should be high on your 2022 agenda.

Alongside this the Cluster is also seeking membership from partner organisations as well as businesses who are looking to build their cyber resilience and better protect their organisation from the increasing risks from cyber-attacks. In order to share knowledge, skills, and capabilities across the region Cyber East will build a network of partnerships with a range of organisations working across academia, research, training and innovation in the Cyber industry.

With a strong focus on Cyber education and skills through courses at the University of East Anglia, University of Suffolk, University of Cambridge, alongside Anglia Ruskin University, the East of England produces a huge amount of Cyber talent each year and we are keen to create a platform to connect skills and needs across the region.

Membership is free to all businesses, organisation and partners looking to join, and members will benefit from networking, an events programme, collaboration with other members, cyber security guidance, training courses & insights from regional cybercrime units and resilience centres.

We will be announcing our first event very soon so make sure you keep an eye out for information about that and sign up for our email updates too.