We love what we do here at Bob’s Business, and as one of the founders and creators of the Yorkshire Cyber Security Cluster (YCSC) along with CRK consulting, we are proud to be helping regional organisations to become more cyber secure.

Introducing the YCSC

The YCSC is an initiative created as part of the UK Cyber Security Forum to help organisations across the Yorkshire region to collaborate and build stronger standards of cyber security as part of a knowledge exchange collective.

It brings together recognised cyber security experts, a selection of academic institutions, charities, local bodies and the police force who are all working together towards reducing cybercrime within Yorkshire and the surrounding regions.

The YCSC now has over 30 core member organisations and an extended community of hundreds of individuals that is growing daily. As well as businesses, academia and public service providers from around the Yorkshire region, the Yorkshire and Humber Regional Cyber Crime Unit (YHROCU) are also members that regularly talk at the meetings, giving insights into what is happening within the cyber security industry.

Sergeant Shelton Newsham from the Regional Cyber Crime Unit described the relationship with the YCSC: “We have a close relationship with the cluster. It is one that brings several benefits to businesses and the public throughout the four forces we cover. The ability of the cluster to bring together industry experts is an important factor in enabling new issues to be raised, problems to be discussed and intelligence to be shared.”

“These open and honest discussions enable us all to work together to reduce that risk to businesses and individuals. The opportunity for law enforcement, industry and academia to meet and discuss issues is something that enables greater knowledge sharing across various sectors to benefit those that live and work in our region. Collaboration leads to more creative approaches enabling law enforcement to connect with different business areas who all have the same goal which is to reduce the risk of businesses and individuals becoming a victim of Cyber Crime.”

The YCSC meetings are held bi-monthly at The Digital Media Centre in Barnsley and are open to anyone who wishes to attend. There are traditionally three speakers at the meetings who talk about a selected theme or topic, helping to educate other members about this area of cyber security.

At the last YCSC meeting in June 2018, Bharat Mistry, principal security strategist at Trend Micro, spoke about ransomware. Thomas Chappelow, a Principal Consultant in PCI and Information Security at Data Protection People, also provided a talk on ‘A day out with Ransomware’.

When speaking about his involvement with the YCSC, Thomas Chappelow said: “A key part of my work is the engagement of stakeholders within the industry, and the wider public, on the importance of cyber and information security capability-building. The Yorkshire Cyber Security Cluster provides a vital forum for regional and national experts, law enforcement officers, and other stakeholders, to share with each other the lessons they are learning within their respective sectors. I’m excited to see the Cluster develop into a key regional security resource.”

The cluster also heard from one of its key members Dr. Daniel Dresner who speaks regularly at the meetings. We asked him what he thought about the YCSC: “I look forward to YCSC meetings. They are an ideal combination of businesses, law enforcement, and academics who come together to look at practical cyber security in (as has been said elsewhere) an ‘unfettered…untrammelled’ atmosphere. YCSC avoids the false divisions of business and family persona which makes it the kind of community approach that I’m interested in – it sets out to make a difference.”

Past meetings have focused on other aspects of the cyber security community such as ‘The next generation of professionals’ where Kathy Mckay from Ideansinc discussed ‘The Commercialisation Project and Building a Northern cyber security Talent Pool, working alongside industries and universities’.

Melanie Oldham, Co-Founder of the YCSC said: “What I love about the cluster is we are all experts in our own field and get the opportunity to showcase this at the meetings, whilst improving our wider knowledge and identifying commercial collaboration opportunities with some great regional businesses, increasing revenue and resilience to the region”.

In the meeting, the cluster will be hearing from Ryan Mackenzie about Advanced Threat Protection, other speakers are to be confirmed.

Join the YCSC

Could you be one of our next speakers? If you would like to speak at one of the future events please get in touch by emailing email@ycsc.org.uk.

If you would like to become a member then all you have to do is come along to the next YCSC meeting and speak to a member of our team about membership. Our meetings are free to attend and you can secure your ticket here on our Eventbrite page.

If you would like to get involved or find out more, visit the YCSC website or you can contact us at email@ycsc.org.uk.