The Eastern Cyber Resilience Centre (ECRC) are going to be visiting Dartford on August 22 as part of their ongoing community engagement programme.

The ECRC is a policing led organisation, established by the Home Office to support small businesses, schools and charities in protecting themselves from online fraud and cybercrime. They offer a free membership as well as a handful of affordable cyber services, with the intention of raising awareness and preventing cybercrime before it happens. They cover seven counties in the Eastern region, with Kent being one of them, and are committed to speaking to as many small businesses as possible.

As well as hosting and attending events both online and in person, the ECRC have recently begun a series of community engagements. This involves visiting local towns, in collaboration with the Police Cyber Protect Network as well as local neighbourhood police. On these days, the team will walk around an area and try and speak to as many people as possible. This allows the team to speak to those people who are willing to engage, and to initiate an open conversation about the risks of cyber crime to small businesses, as well as the slight changes that can be made to massively mitigate these. Since the start of the year, this programme has seen enormous success, visiting towns including Bury St Edmunds, Haverhill, Sevenoaks, Felixstowe, St Neots, Ely, and Gravesend.

Dartford is the next location to receive a visit. The team hopes to speak to as many small businesses as possible and raise the awareness levels around online fraud and cybercrime.

If you are a small business in Dartford and are particularly keen to schedule a visit from the team, please get in touch by emailing enquiries@ecrcentre.co.uk.

Published: 26th July 2024