Scotland’s leading organisation for building resilience against cybercrime and fraud, 'Cyber and Fraud Centre – Scotland' (formerly known as the Scottish Business Resilience Centre) has warned businesses that they must have a plan in place to counter attacks, as it adds two legal firms and four new IT and security firms to its cadre in response to growing cyber security threats.

The Incident Response Cadre at Cyber and Fraud Centre – Scotland is formed of a trusted network of IT and specialist cyber security service providers, alongside the two new legal practices, Burness Paull and Anderson Strathern. Companies who have recently experienced a cyber-attack are referred to the cadre to receive immediate expert advice and assistance. The law firms, which operate across Scotland, will help companies affected by cybercrime negotiate the legal reverberations.

Comments Jude McCorry, CEO: “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.

“Cyber crime such as cyber attacks 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." she adds. "The name also clarifies what we do and means we are holding ourselves accountable and committed to tackling cybercrime and fraud to make Scotland a safer place to do business.”

Paul Atkinson, chair of Cyber and Fraud Centre - Scotland, comments: “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.”