A local Cyber Essentials Certificate body have reached a significant milestone with the roll out of a government-backed scheme.

Indelible Data, based in Maryport, have issued 2500 Cyber Essentials certificates since the launch of the scheme in 2014.

The Cyber Essentials scheme was devised by the Government to help businesses and organisations against a range of the most common online threats.

“Our focus over the past year has been to make it as easy as possible for customers to stay secure,” said Indelible Data’s Managing Director, Tony Wilson.

“We’ve produced a unique step-by step guide to help customers understand the requirements to give them the best possible chance of achieving Certification in the face of adversity.”

Indelible Data added that certification had not slowed down during lockdown and that this most likely due to businesses prioritising cyber security during the COVID-19 pandemic.

A UK study found that most IT decision makers fear remote working will expose their firm to a cyber

breach.

Indelible Data is authorised to asses both the Basic and Plus levels of the Cyber Essentials scheme, and the certificate offers a way for organisations and businesses to show customers that they are working to protect their data.

With an increasing amount of people living and working at home due to the COVID-19 pandemic, cyber criminals have tried take advantage of the situation and there has been a sharp increase in online scams, fraud, and malware attacks on companies.

Cumbria’s Police and Crime Commissioner, Peter McCall, said: “We noticed that in lockdown one, crime reduced dramatically across the board as you would expect.

“People weren’t allowed to go anywhere. Clearly, shops weren’t suffering shop lifting because they weren’t open.

“In the last three to four months, I would say that crime has been more or less where we would expect it to be and it has been coming back to normal levels.

“We have certainly seen an increase in terms of cyber crime and cyber enabled crimes, like scams. I think organised criminals have been very swift to take advantage of the lockdown and the fact that people are online much more.”

In 2020, HMRC responded to more than 846,000 referrals of suspicious HMRC contact from the public, and reported over 15,500 malicious web pages to internet service providers to be taken down.

Head of Action Fraud, Pauline Smith, said: "Criminals are experts at impersonating organisations that we know and trust. We work closely with HMRC to raise awareness of current scams and encourage people to report any suspicious calls or messages they receive, even if they haven’t acted on them, to the relevant channels.

"This information is crucial in disrupting criminal activity and is already helping HMRC take down fraudulent websites being used to facilitate fraud."

Indelible Data, set up in 2009, has access to over 100 independent ACE Practitioners throughout the UK.