Cyber Prevent, Protect and Prepare
Our Cyber Prevent, Protect and Prepare officers help people make informed choices and to use their cyber skills in a legal way.
They provide cyber security advice and training for medium to large-sized businesses, public-sector organisations and charities. They are also part of the national Cyber Choices network.
Our services
The team can:
The Cyber Protect and Prepare team:
- act as liaison to the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), the national technical authority for Cyber Security in the UK
- advise on incident response and recovery following a cyber attack
- assess and authorise all cease-and-desist activity
- conduct deconfliction checks against potential Prevent subjects at a national level
- conduct exercises with organisations to establish and develop business continuity and resilience plans
- coordinate Cyber Prevent activity across the region
- develop and coordinate diversions and interventions for Prevent subjects
- deliver high quality workshops, events and engagements to both subjects and partners
- deliver Continuing Professional Development (CPD) to partner agencies and forces
- establish and develop industry and academic partnerships in relation to Prevent
- provide cyber security advice and guidance to all types of organisations and sectors, including national infrastructure and defence-related activity
- provide cyber security advice and assessments in relation to high-profile events
- respond to live threat intelligence taskings and provide immediate mitigation
Who can use our services?
- All police staff, officers and ROCU investigators
Smaller organisations, and individual victims of cybercrime, should be referred to their local force cybercrime teams.
We are keen to offer initial advice on how our capabilities and other partners may be able to assist your investigation. Bids for capabilities then need to be taken to your Force Tasking meeting.
How to request services
DS Neil Tomes leads our Cyber Prevent team.
Our Gateway, within the Regional Intelligence Unit can provide more information about this service:
- by phone – 01278 647 299
- email – swrocugateway@avonandsomerset.police.uk
The Regional Intelligence Unit is available:
- Monday to Friday 08:00 – 22:00
- Weekends 08:00 – 16:30
For complex or resource-intensive requests, or requests for sensitive tactics, you will be asked to complete the BID Capability Form. Please refer to the Tasking Procedural Guidance about this process.
For urgent, out-of-hours enquires, call 01278 647 299 and the number will divert to the on-call SWROCU officer.