Jude McCorry

The Scottish Business Resilience Centre, the not-for-profit dedicated to helping educate and support Scottish organisations to avoid the fallout from cyber crime, will as of yesterday be known as Cyber and Fraud Centre - Scotland as it extends its focus to also include financial fraud.

The new brand comes as cyber attacks and fraud are on the rise: latest figures from Police Scotland show the number of cyber crimes in 2021-22 was nearly double that of 2019-20, and fraud has increased 86% this decade.

Paul Atkinson, chair of Cyber and Fraud Centre - Scotland, noted: “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 cyber crime – 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 cyber crime 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.