EVENTS
The Tees Business LIVE event featured a presentation by Harri Hadjikyriacou( second right) and Kerryn Gaffney( right) of Barracuda Networks and a panel Q & A featuring Kelly Close of Cleveland Police and Cornerstone Business Solutions director Chris Bibby.
PICTURES: STUART BOULTON
Tees Business LIVE: October 2 2025
WHINSTONE VIEW, HUTTON RUDBY
IN ASSOCIATION WITH
SECURITY SPOTLIGHT
‘ It’ s up to us all’: Why tackling cybercrime is everyone’ s responsibility
Suggestions for better cybersecurity – and a plea to avoid thinking it’ s only the IT department’ s responsibility – gave delegates food for thought at the latest Tees Business LIVE meeting.
Held for the first time at Whinstone View, near Great Ayton, the regular networking and information event, organised by Tees Business, heard a panel of experts discuss the latest developments in the battle against cybercrime.
The three-strong panel – Harri Hadjikyriacou of global cybersecurity specialist Barracuda Networks, Cleveland Police cyber protect and prepare officer Kelly Close and director of event sponsor Cornerstone Business Solutions, Chris Bibby – felt it was everyone’ s business to be aware of the cybercrime scourge.
And when Tees Business director Dave Allan asked at the end of the meeting how many people had learned something new about cybersecurity, the unanimous show of hands confirmed the event had done what it set out to do.
Kelly told the meeting that the Cleveland Police cybersecurity team goes by four key principles: protect, prepare, pursue and prevent.
She said:“ My role is to work with individuals, businesses and charities to help them recognise what their risk is from cybercrime and then help them put things in place to mitigate it.”
And she revealed that investigating ransomware attacks – with ransoms ranging from £ 500 to £ 15,000 – made up much of her recent workload, along with“ man in the middle” attacks, where a hacker secretly intercepts and potentially alters communications between two unsuspecting parties, often to steal data such as login credentials and banking details.
“ Criminals are looking for vulnerabilities, for things to exploit, for weaknesses to take advantage of,” added Kelly.
“ A lot of businesses, especially small ones, think,‘ No one’ s interested in us’. But people are scanning the internet, looking for things they can make use of, and they will find something they can blackmail you for, make use of, sell on the dark web … everything you have is valuable to somebody.
“ But we are here to help you. We are here to support you. So, at the first sign of something happening, if you don’ t have a supportive IT company, please give us a shout.”
Harri said it was important to acknowledge how cybercriminals are always“ one step ahead” – even to the extent of asking for Bitcoin ransom
payments because they can’ t be tracked. Whereas a badly written email could once have been a giveaway clue, she said, the use of AI means phishing emails are now much more grammatically correct, making them even harder to detect.
And Chris Bibby stripped back what businesses should do to what he termed the three“ shuns” – protection, detection and education.
He told the meeting:“ Education is a huge thing that’ s ignored by most companies. The good thing from your point of view is that the basics you can put in place are relatively inexpensive and are really good solutions.
“ There are quite a few things we can do to protect you for not a huge amount of money.”
And he stressed that everyone in a business – not just the IT department – has a responsibility to be cybersecurityaware.
Around 90 people signed up for the gathering, with Dave and his fellow Tees Business director Martin Walker thanking Cornerstone Business Solutions for sponsoring the event and series associate sponsor North East Chamber of Commerce.
Series associate sponsor for the 2025 Tees Business LIVE programme is North East Chamber of Commerce.
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