The insurance company Aviva has partnered with the Cyber Resilience Centre (CRC) network. It’s part of the insurer’s work as a National Ambassador for the National Cyber Resilience Centre Group (NCRCG), which sits alongside nine regional centres to make up the CRC network. The network’s aim; to improve the cyber resilience of the UK’s small and medium-sized enterprises (SME).
Aviva is recommending over 3,000 of its brokers take up a free membership at their regional CRC, where they will be able to access resources, guidance and training against potential cyber risk. Each regional centre is police-led and set up to provide cyber resilience services for SMEs. Through its broker base as well as bespoke webinars, Aviva says that it’s raising awareness of the importance of cyber resilience – and where businesses can go for advice. Similar initiatives are in the pipeline at NCRCG. Several NCRCG ambassadors are set to roll out comparable campaigns amongst their own supply chains and customer bases.
Stephen Ridley, Head of Cyber at Aviva, said: “Cyber Resilience Centres provide access to high quality – and generally free – advice and guidance. This can offer brokers and their customers a valuable resource to help them improve their cyber resilience. Cyber protection can be a complicated area. By taking advantage of our offer of free membership to their regional CRC, brokers can ensure they are accessing clear, concise messaging from a trusted source.
“It is only through collaboration across the public and private sectors that we will be able to solve the cyber challenge, and we are proud to be at the forefront of this initiative.”
Paul Lopez, Director of the Eastern Cyber Resilience Centre, said: “It is excellent to have this kind of support from such a well-known and respected company. Aviva’s trusted position in the marketplace as an insurer gives us a really important route into the businesses they partner with and serve – enabling us to spread our message of cyber resilience further than we ever could do working in isolation. In addition, Aviva has their roots in the east of England so, as the Eastern CRC, we are particularly excited to be working with them on this campaign.”
Detective Superintendent Ian Kirby, CEO at NCRCG, pictured, said: “We are so pleased to have partnered with our National Ambassador Aviva to launch this first-of-its kind campaign. It is a perfect example of an invaluable yet straightforward way larger organisations can help to strengthen the cyber resilience of smaller ones – by pointing them in the right direction to find trusted cyber support and advice. Our many thanks to the team at Aviva for collaborating with us to really champion the SME community and for lending their enduring support to our work.
“Over the coming months, we are looking forward to scaling up this particular campaign and transferring all that we have learnt to similar initiatives we have in the pipeline with our other National Ambassador partners.”
About NCRCG:
Set up in 2021, the National Cyber Resilience Centre Group (NCRCG) is a collaboration between the Home Office, policing, National Ambassador partners (a recent addition was Trustify, a Managed Security Service Provider; and HP) and academia. Nine cyber resilience centres operate across England and Wales; services are delivered by students. Visit https://nationalcrcgroup.co.uk/.
