Could your business benefit from the Cyber-Security Information Sharing Partnership?

“All your servers are going under DDOS attack unless you pay 25 Bitcoin. You have 24 hours.”

Would you know what to do if your business received a message like this from a cyber criminal?

As part of Humberside Police’s Cyber Security – Has It Clicked? Campaign, cyber crime experts from the force and the regional cyber crime unit are here to offer help and advice.

Essentially, the message is demanding around £4,000, otherwise the attacker will launch a Distributed Denial of Service (DDOS) attack, which will use multiple computers to crash your company’s website and prevent real customers getting through.

But don’t panic.

Advice on how to deal with this and many other forms of online attack can be found from regional cyber crime experts and fellow businessmen by signing up to join the free Yorkshire and Humber Cyber-Security Information Sharing Partnership (CiSP).

Run by Cert-UK – the UK National Computer Emergency Response Team – the service is used by more than 3,000 individuals and 1,400 organisations and is proving a valuable weapon in the arsenal against cyber criminals.

Cert-UK was formed in March 2014 in response to the National Cyber Security Strategy.

Part of national initiative, which includes regionalised online groups, the CiSP was originally launched in March 2013 as a collaboration between industry and government, to share cyber threats and vulnerability information.

Its aim was to reduce the impact of cyber crime on UK businesses by increasing awareness of the potential threats and sharing experiences and information.

Members include law enforcement professionals and industry leaders, such as Microsoft, Virgin Media, QinetiQ, BT and EE, as well as small and medium enterprises (SME) from varying sectors.

The platform allows them to exchange cyber threat information in real time, in a secure and dynamic environment, operating within a framework that protects confidentiality by allowing members to share information with as many or as few others as they like and using a traffic-light system to show at a glance the level of confidentiality required.

Members are also able to receive free network monitoring reports, giving access to tailored feeds of information from Cert-UK covering malicious activity it sees on your network.

Membership also provides access to the Fusion Cell – a joint industry and government analytical team which examines, analyses and feeds back information from a variety of sources and can conduct bespoke malware and phising analysis for members.

DCI Steve Thomas from the Regional Cyber Crime Unit serving Yorkshire and the Humber said: “This is a fantastic information sharing platform, which helps the business community protect itself from cyber attack.

“Not only can it provide real-time access to emerging threats, malware, DDOS and phising, there is also best practice advice from both law enforcement and cyber security professionals, to help firms mitigate threat.

“This is done whilst recognising the commercial sensitivity that often prevents law enforcement being made aware and, therefore unable to combat the issues long-term.

“Cert-UK can also provide services free of charge, which would be beyond the budget of many SMEs, such as penetration testing, which tests the security of a business’ network, and network or netflow monitoring, which reviews the traffic on a business network and highlights risks.”

To become a registered CiSP member you must be:

A UK registered company or other legal entity which is responsible for the administration of an electronic communications network in the UK. Sponsored by either a government department, existing CiSP member or a trade body/ association.

To find out more about the CISP, visit www.cert-gov.uk or follow @cert_uk on Twitter.

Click here for more information on preventing your business from falling foul of cyber attacks, make sure you follow @humberbeat #HPCyberCrime on Twitter and visit the Humberside Police Facebook page.