WEST Yorkshire Police have created a free tool which will help Bradford's businesses and organisations to understand and monitor threats they face from malicious cyber activity.

It is understood on average the cost of a cyber attack on a small business is around £11,000 and thousands are happening nationwide every day.

Funded by Government, Police CyberAlarm acts like a ‘CCTV camera’ monitoring the traffic seen by a businesses’ connection to the internet.

It will detect and provide regular reports of suspected malicious activity, enabling a business to take steps to improve their cyber resilience.

Once a business or organisation becomes a Police CyberAlarm member, they will need to install the ‘CyberAlarm Virtual Server’ which will then collect and process traffic logs identifying suspicious activity from the firewall.

Police CyberAlarm does not see any of the content of any network traffic it monitors the logs relating to the traffic to identify suspicious activity. It is designed to protect personal data, trade secrets and intellectual property.

As a Police CyberAlarm member, they will benefit from regular reports detailing suspicious and potentially malicious attack activity on their firewall/internet gateway.

It will show them how they are being attacked, and where from so they can improve their cyber resilience. It will also help law enforcement identify current threats and take enforcement action against cyber criminals.

Police CyberAlarm will be offered to every business or organisation in the region and can help any with a computer network including SMEs, organisations, public and private sector, charities, education establishments and local government.

Detective Superintendent David Norris of the Yorkshire and the Humber Regional Organised Crime Unit, said: “The threat of cyber-attacks against businesses are increasing. We need to work together with industry to combat this threat.

"Police CyberAlarm is a great example of what can be achieved when policing and private industry work together.

"Cyber Security should be a priority for every single business no matter how big or small that business is.

"This is a police-led project which businesses can trust. There is no catch to signing up, it is being offered for free and we want to get as many businesses across the Yorkshire and the Humber Region to join.

“The more members we have, the more data we get which will provide law enforcement with a much richer intelligence picture about the current and emerging threats businesses are facing.

"The data will also be presented back to members in the form of regular reports to help them take steps to improve their cyber security. I would urge businesses to sign up and take advantage of all Police CyberAlarm has to offer.”

Businesses can sign up on the cyberalarm.police.uk/#join website. They will then receive a unique code which once added to the website will provide access to full instructions and how to install Police CyberAlarm.