NCSC training for small businesses, charities and the voluntary sector

With 38% of micro and small organisations experiencing a Cyber Security breach in the last 12 months, and with the average cost of those being over £8,000 the NCSC is providing new training for small businesses and charities.

Most small organisations do not have an IT department, or technical staff responsible for cyber security. And with so much cyber security advice out there, it can be difficult for small organisations to know where to start.

This is where the NCSC's new training for small organisations and charities can help. It guides you through all the actions you need to take to reduce the likelihood of you becoming a victim of the most common cyberattacks.

The training demonstrates how you can improve your organisation’s resilience, and covers five key areas:

1. Backing up your organisation's data correctly

2. Protecting your organisation against malware

3. Keeping the devices used by your employees secure

4. The importance of creating strong passwords

5. Defending your organisation against phishing

The training will put your staff in the driving seat. They will be answering questions, identifying possible issues, and making suggestions for how to prevent, and tackle common cyber security challenges.

The training is primarily aimed at SMEs, charities and the voluntary sector, but can be applied to any organisation, regardless of size or sector. It's been deliberately designed for a non-technical audience (who may have little or no knowledge of cyber security), with tips that complement any existing policies and procedures.

How to use the training

There are two options for using the e-learning package:

• The first (and easiest) way is to direct your staff to the Cyber security for small organisations page, which is hosted on the NCSC website. The package is free to use, and includes knowledge checks. No login is required - just click on the link and start learning.

• The other way is to integrate the package into your own organisation's training platform. You can do this by downloading the following zip file, which contains the package as a SCORM-compliant file. We have also created an API version as an alternative to help users who have been unable to use SCORM.

Once imported into your own LMS system, you can tweak the package to suit your needs as the content is covered by the Open Government Licence.

For more bespoke cyber security training the Cyber Resilience Centre for Wales offers tailored training packages to suit all businesses’ needs.