The best cyber security training and resources

Cyber attacks can be harmful to any organisation. But for charities – who rely heavily on the trust and goodwill of supporters – they can be devastating. As well as potential loss of data, cyber attacks can cause financial costs, dent your charity’s reputation, and even lead to fines or sanctions.

And they’re by no means uncommon. The Cyber Security Breaches Survey 2024 found that around a third of charities had experienced some form of cyber security breach or attack in the last 12 months. The most common breaches were phishing (83% of charities), impersonating an organisation in emails or online (37% of charities), and viruses or other malware (14% of charities).   

Even in these times of economic crisis, cyber security is really important – perhaps more so than ever. With never-ending tech developments, it’s important that charities remain up-to-date with the latest threats and how to protect themselves.

One way of doing that is to invest in cyber security training for your staff and volunteers. Here are three courses, along with some helpful resource, that are currently available. Each charity will have slightly different requirements and budgets, so explore the following courses – and others – to find the best fit for your organisation.

National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC)

When you’re looking to boost your cyber security, the NCSC is likely to be your first port of call. It has a few options to consider. Their free online training course ‘cyber security for small organisations’ aims to help organisations  understand and be confident about what cyber security means for them. It also explains how they can keep safe online, though five key topics. These are: backing up an organisation’s data; protecting against malware; creating strong passwords; keeping devices secure; and defending against phishing.

The NCSC also offers a free e-learning training package: ’Staying Safe Online: Top Tips for Staff’ – with small to medium enterprises (SMEs) and charities in mind. The training takes less than 30 minutes to complete and will equip staff with basic knowledge about cyber security and some simple actionable steps they can take. It’s designed for complete beginners in cyber security and can be used on the NCSC website or integrated into your charity’s own training platform, if you have one. 

You might also like to explore these three free cyber security tools that can help charities: web check (to check your website for vulnerabilities); mail check (to understand how secure your email server configuration is); and early warning (to flag up any potentially suspicious activity on your network). The Cyber Security: Small charity guide also has helpful information on how to improve cyber security, quickly and at low cost.

To make your cyber security more robust at an organisational level, consider getting cyber certified. Take a look at the government-backed certification programmes: Cyber Essentials and Cyber Essentials Plus. You might also want to explore the Cyber Advisor scheme, which gives SMEs cost-effective and reliable cyber security advice.

Smartdesc

Smartdesc offers Cyber Security Training and Data Protection e-Learning, designed specifically for charities. 

Its training covers three core modules: information security (to help staff understand the importance of information security and what to do if it’s breached); data protection (explaining how UK data protection laws impact your charity); and fraud awareness (including how to help defend against fraud).

The course content is designed for people with any level of IT know-how, and can be customised if you want to include your own additional content. It’s also updated annually to make sure it’s in line with the latest regulations.

Prices start at £3 per month, per user with no setup fee.

VSL learning

This information and cyber security awareness training is suitable for staff, trustees and volunteers. It aims to help them identify online threats and take simple steps to protect your charity.

It’s a 60-minute self-paced course, which means your teams can fit it into their schedule when best suits them – and there’s no time limit on when they need to complete it. It also gives easy, practical steps that each member of your team can take to significantly reduce the risk of being hit by a successful cyber attack. The content is all aligned with the NCSC’s best practices.  

They offer a free demo, and prices start at £12 per person. They offer a discount if you book additional training, such as their GDPR or safeguarding training.

And over to us

And for lots of free information to improve your charity’s cyber security, take a look at our Cyber Security Hub. As well as explaining all the essentials, we share tools and resources to help you understand the threats and how best to prevent an attack.

We also share many discounted software options on the Charity Digital Exchange that can help protect your charity against an attack.