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OxLEP chief executive offers SMEs advice following worldwide cyber attack

May 15, 2017

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This weekend’s worldwide cyber security attack though – in the main – targeting large national and international organisationsshould act as a timely reminder to thousands of small businesses in Oxfordshire.

Our county is home to around 31000 VAT-registered businesses many of whom will have the ability to put much-resource behind cyber threats – but for smaller business where resources are often tight it would be easy to overlook online security issues.

Our message to Oxfordshire SMEs is this weekend’s news should act as a stark reminder that cyber security must remain a top priority and should not be ignored – and there is plenty of support available to businesses.

The Oxford Cyber Cluster  is an informal group of small companies who actively work in cyber security promoting the need for increased resilience in this area offering practical advice.

In addition – businesses should review their current cyber security procedures against the up-to-date advice given by the National Cyber Security Centre. Advice includes; keeping security software patches current using proper antivirus software services and backing up any data that matters to a business.

Our vision is to see Oxfordshire as a vibrant sustainable inclusive world-leading economy – driven by innovation enterprise and research excellence. With that vision comes inevitable growth and the need to invest in new technologies which naturallyopens-up everyone – but particularly SMEs – to online risk.

And with 85600 new jobs set to be generated in Oxfordshire by 2031 – over half of which have already been createdmany by SMEs – that risk is certainly not going to go away.

Nigel Tipple (Chief Executive)