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Students are being recruited to help strengthen the cyber security around the South West via some 鈥渆thical hacking鈥� as the skills shortage leaves businesses vulnerable to attack.

The South West Cyber Resilience Centre (SWCRC) has announced a partnership with Bristol鈥檚 UWE (University of the West of England) to work with students with expertise in ethical hacking and cyber security.

鈥淥ur role at the SWCRC is to support smaller businesses and charities to strengthen their cyber resilience and to make this support either free, or very accessible and affordable,鈥� said Mark Moore, director at SWCRC and a serving police superintendent with Devon and Cornwall Police.

鈥淥ne service we鈥檝e been keen to offer is ethical hacking, and working with students means we get the relevant levels of expertise at an affordable cost.

鈥淲e pay the students for the levels of work they commit to, and they get to deploy their skills in a business setting, so it鈥檚 a win-win for everyone involved.鈥�

Ethical hacking involves the testing of an IT system with the knowledge and permission of its owner so that the strengths and weaknesses of the system are exposed and tested.

It鈥檚 a widely used technique employed by multinational organisations to find the vulnerabilities of their cyber security but it鈥檚 harder for small organisations to tap into, due to resource shortages and the costs involved.

鈥淲e have a skills shortage in cyber security and this partnership with Student Services means that we can develop and nurture talented individuals who already understand ethical hacking and are keen to help,鈥� said Mr Moore.

鈥淎t the same time, businesses get more information about the risks they face and what they need to do to improve resilience. Once they have our report and understand the findings, they can make their own decisions about what steps to take and who to use to do that.

鈥淪WCRC is a not-for-profit, so all we do then is signpost businesses towards our trusted partners and resources we know will help them.鈥�

A recent survey by SWCRC showed that smaller business owners are wary of committing to cyber security because they fear unexpected costs in upgrading systems and software licenses. Employing SWCRC Student Services means that business owners benefit from impartial advice which they can trust.

Dr Phil Legg, associate professor in cyber security at UWE, said: "At UWE we are keen to support our students through academic study but also more broadly to think about their future employability and skills development.

鈥淲orking with the SWCRC has been a perfect opportunity for our students - they get to put their academic skills to the test to help secure industry partners in the region within a supportive environment, to gain the valuable experience that prospective employers will be looking for".

Ross Brown, SWCRC lead on cyber and innovation, added: 鈥淏y employing our Student Services, businesses are helping develop the 海角视频鈥檚 cyber security talent pool. They are also taking an important step in protecting themselves from cyber criminals who are operating at unprecedented levels.

鈥淥ur students are guided and supervised by senior cyber security experts and have access to the latest and most sophisticated knowledge.

鈥淭he information we can provide back to businesses means that managers can make informed decisions about investment in cyber security based on impartial reporting.鈥�

Student Services on offer include testing the resilience of an organisation鈥檚 website, and its internal and external systems.

But they also include continuity planning advice, bespoke staff training, and research into potentially-compromising information that鈥檚 out there about businesses and their staff. SWCRC is looking to bolster its pool of trained student talent in the coming months, but is already able to provide its services as part of its Home Office-funded model. To find out more, go to .

SWCRC is a not-for-profit firm set up in 2020 under National Police Chiefs Council with funding from the Home Office. Its aim is, in partnership with industry, to tackle cyber crime and give sound guidance to companies for whom membership is free.

SWCRC is part of the national roll-out of Cyber Resilience Centres in the 海角视频, which began in 2019, to provide businesses and charities with free support, and an 鈥渁ffordable鈥� way to access more bespoke cyber security services and consultancy.

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The SWCRC is led by police, in partnership with the private sector and academics, and facilitated by Business Resilience International Management (BRIM), which works with the Home Office on preventing cyber crime. The SWCRC has been funded by the National Police Chiefs鈥� Council Cyber Crime Programme which secured Government funding to establish a network of CRCs across England and Wales.

It offers a range of membership options depending on the level of support that businesses in Devon, Cornwall, Dorset, Wiltshire, Gloucestershire and Somerset need. The core membership, which is specifically aimed at micro businesses and SMEs, is free, and provides access to a range of resources and tools to help them identify risks and vulnerabilities.