ERSOU (Eastern Region Special Operations Unit) has recently announced that businesses and organisations across the Eastern region of the UK can now get access to Police CyberAlarm, a free tool designed to help monitor the threats they face from malicious cyber activity.
Police CyberAlarm – which is funded by the UK Government – monitors the internet traffic seen by a businesses. It detects and provides regular reports of suspected malicious activity, enabling a business to take steps to improve its cyber resilience and further understand cybersecurity.
Once becoming a Police CyberAlarm member, businesses and organisations need to install the CyberAlarm Virtual Server. This will collect and process traffic logs to identify suspicious activity from the firewall.
Police CyberAlarm does not see any network traffic content as it monitors the logs relating to the traffic to identify suspicious activity – it is designed to protect personal data, trade secrets and intellectual property.
As a Police CyberAlarm member, organisations will benefit from regular reports detailing suspicious and potentially malicious attack activity on its firewall or internet gateway. This will show colleagues how and where they are being attacked from and will also help law enforcement identify current threats and take enforcement action against cyber criminals.
Detective Sergeant Louisa Barry, Regional Cyber Crime Co-ordinator at ERSOU, remarked: “The threat of cyber-attacks against businesses are 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 we know that 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 for free and we want to get as many businesses across the east.
“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 would urge businesses to sign up and take advantage of all Police CyberAlarm has to offer.”
To read the full press release, click here.