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New board member for South West Cyber Resilience Centre

The fast-growing South West Cyber Resilience Centre (SWRC) has announced that Angela Hicks has joined as a Board member. The SWCRC is a Home Office funded, police-led organisation created to help South West businesses and charities build cyber resilience in the context of sharply rising cyber crimes and attacks.

With well over 1,000 members already, the SWCRC is keenly ambitious to grow further while proactively assisting business owners and managers to understand that simple steps can have big impacts on their cyber security.

“To achieve this level of growth, we need to understand the challenges and barriers that businesses and charities are facing. We’re delighted that Angela is joining us, bringing with her inside knowledge of the South West business community,” said Mark Moore, Director of SWCRC.

Angela Hicks is CEO at the hive which offers one-to-one business advice and training, workspace/meeting space, and a welcoming business community for small businesses across North Somerset.

“Businesses face many challenges and calls for their time, but cyber resilience is an urgent priority. The SWCRC offers a free resource for many to begin their cyber journey and I’m looking forward to contributing to their business plans, which will bring much-needed cyber skills and knowledge to the South West,” Angela said.

“With over a thousand members, we have a good foothold to build on. Supply chains are becoming an area of interest for businesses, for example, as we know that criminals can access data and IT systems through third parties. The SWCRC is keen to strengthen the resilience of our supply chains and that only be a good thing for the economy.”

Angela joined what is now the hive when it was a small community business support project 36 years ago and has a long history of delivering successful business support programmes on behalf of the UK Government.

In 2008, spotting a need for flexible workspace for the small businesses they were helping, Angela set about securing £3.6 million to build a BREEAM excellent, energy efficient purpose-built managed office facility for the area.

With support from her team, volunteer board and other stakeholders, the hive opened in 2014 and it has since gone from strength to strength currently delivering the business support package for North Somerset funded by the Levelling Up Fund.

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