The Scottish Business Resilience Centre is rebranding to Cyber and Fraud Centre – Scotland as it bids to strengthen its focus around the rising threat of cybercrime.
The government-backed not-for-profit organisation has made the decision to change its name after witnessing a 92 per cent rise in cyber-related crime and fraud in the last two years.
The organisation’s remit will extend its focus to include financial fraud, and it will continue to focus on helping educate businesses around cybercrime prevention and dealing with the fallout.
The new brand comes as cyberattacks and fraud are on the rise: latest figures from Police Scotland show the number of cybercrimes in 2021-22 was nearly double that of 2019-20, and fraud has increased 86 per cent this decade.
Paul Atkinson, chair of Cyber and Fraud Centre – Scotland, said: “Over half of reported crime is related to fraud or cyber, but they’re both hugely underreported – so it’s likely they pose an even greater threat than the numbers indicate. As a nation, we are handling support for cyber crime victims well, but victim support around financial fraud is severely lacking. We need to examine how to collectively prevent and protect from this type of fraud, and the Cyber and Fraud Centre – Scotland team is well equipped to lead the conversation around this.”
Jude McCorry, CEO of Cyber and Fraud Centre – Scotland, said: “Financial fraud – including cybercrime – is set to be reclassified as a threat to national security, which will see it treated as seriously as terrorism and civil emergencies. We’ve seen a huge increase in this type of crime over the past year, and a lot of victims don’t get the support they need, which is why we’ve added fraud to our organisation’s purpose.
“Cybercrime such as cyberattacks and financial fraud often cause businesses to pause operations; ransomware attacks prevent them from accessing their systems and financial fraud could render them unable to pay wages and suppliers. This can be devastating for small businesses and charities in particular, who may end up ceasing operations entirely.
“We’ve renamed ourselves Cyber and Fraud Centre – Scotland in recognition of our enhanced focus on empowering and educating organisations across the country on the risks caused by cybercrime and fraud. The name also clarifies what we do and means we are holding ourselves accountable and committed to tackling cyber crime and fraud to make Scotland a safer place to do business.”
Cyber and Fraud Centre – Scotland will continue its close working relationships with partner organisations including the Scottish Government and Police Scotland, to ensure its members can access top-of-the-line training progammes and have access to industry experts as needed.
In recent years, the organisation has cemented its status as a leader in building cyber awareness and business resilience throughout Scotland. Its latest milestones include launching the CyberScotland Partnership in 2021, and upskilling more than 450 businesses across Scotland in the National Cyber Security Centre’s scenario-based cyber awareness training programme, Exercise in a Box.
The news is part of a wider organisational shift for the not-for-profit, which last month announced it had officially adopted a four-day working week.
