Co-op, M&S, Harrods: Cheltenham provides answers to the latest cyber attacks
As the national media spread the news that major UK retailers had faced potentially damaging cyber attacks, a gathering of Gloucestershire businesses and experts took place in Cheltenham to discuss.
Dears readers,
Welcome to Friday’s edition of The Raikes Journal.
About the only thing welcome about yesterday’s news of cyber attacked on major retailers M&S, the Co-op and then Harrods was that it distracted the national media from delivering the latest daily installment on President Trump’s second term in office.
It was certainly no less worrying for many.
Speculation was rife. Images of dark forces at work on the web abounded and anxiety crept over anyone whose livelihood depends on their business being secure and safe from harm in an age where digital is everywhere. So that’s just about everyone!
In Cheltenham a special gathering took place at the University of Gloucestershire’s FuturePark yesterday that saw business people and experts in cyber security discuss what had really taken place, how scared anyone really should be and what measures could be taken to prevent any of them becoming the next victim.
Raikes was invited down to listen in, and the report is below.
We would like to thank ReformIT, the firm of Cheltenham-based experts that led from the front at that meeting, and CyNam, the influential Cheltenham-based cyber group, that partnered with ReformIT to make the event possible.
Here’s wishing everyone a safe, secure and very enjoyable bank holiday weekend.
Best regards,
Andrew Merrell (editor).
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Top 100: The incredible impact of National Star
The bottom line is what counts for every business, of course, but sometimes it’s worth just taking a quick look at their impact first - because sometimes it is simply incredible.
As we played catch-up on some of the organisations featured in our rolling Top 100 Businesses in Gloucestershire series, which follows the fortunes of the county’s biggest businesses by turnover, we came across the National Star Foundation.
Before you get to its financial data in its latest annual report you get to numbers outlining the impact of what it does - support young adults with disabilities and learning difficulties. It is simply astonishing. Read it here.
Your briefing notes...
📈 Will Abbott of Randall and Payne will be hosting the latest in a series of bootcamp workshops for businesses on Tuesday from 9am to 11am. The peer-to-peer workshops are designed to challenge thinking, develop perspectives and deliver results for business owners and leaders. They run monthly, so if you can’t make this one (The 2030 Leader: Essential Skills for a changing world), there’s one due on 2 June (Strategic Acceleration: tools to out-think and out-perform) and 1 July (Influence & Authority: Building long-term success in any workplace). Email marketing@randall-payne.co.uk or call Jo Kline on 01242 776000 for more information.
🥂 Cheltenham Chamber of Commerce is due to stage its annual general meeting on Thursday 8 May at 5.30pm. The full agenda will be published on the chamber’s website. As well as the official proceedings, attendees will be able to enjoy networking with refreshments provided by Ken Sheathers Wines, of Cheltenham. Guest speaker will be Max Wilkinson, the town’s MP. More here.
🥇 The University of Gloucestershire – already rated First Class in the 2024/25 People and Planet University League – has launched a ‘transformative action-driven programme with the QUIN Institute designed by industry experts for immediate real-world application’. The Sustainable Leaders Accelerator online programme will ‘empower business leaders to assess climate-related challenges and build organisational resilience, drive innovation around sustainable supply chains, and apply sustainability principles to improve efficiency’. Read more.
📈 Acquirz, the award-winning Gloucestershire-based B2B data solutions and email marketing agency is marking five years in business with the appointment of Vickie Stacey as head of data operations. Its seven-figure turnover is now up 40 per cent year-on-year. Its client base has grown by 600 per cent and its team expanded by 800 per cent since 2020. From launching with just 10 clients at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, it now works with over 50 large enterprises and SMEs. Read more.
Stroud Brewery hosts mini B Corp summit
Representatives from Gloucestershire B Corps gathered at Stroud Brewery to meet representatives from the Better Business Act and Stroud MP Dr Simon Opher.
Dr Simon Opher MP visited Stroud Brewery with representatives from the Better Business Act campaign to hear how local B Corp businesses exemplify the economic and social benefits of purpose-driven enterprise and support the route to better business. Alongside Stroud Brewery, Dr Opher met with local B Corps — Glos B-Initiative, Hobbs House Bakery, Austin Design Works, and QuoLux — who are all members of the Better Business Act coalition. Read more.
Diary Dates for you bank holiday weekend and beyond (business and pleasure!)…
Today
The Bookshop Band is due to play Postlip Hall, Winchcombe, from 7,30pm.
Saturday
Cheltenham Town play Bromley away at 3pm.
Cathedral Quarter Pop-Up Market, Gloucester. Bringing together the best of local artisans, designers, and makers in a vibrant showcase of creativity, according to Gloucester BID. From 10am to 4pm. Find out more here
Cheltenham’s vintage super kilo clothes sale takes place at St Philip and St James Church, Leckhampton, from 11am to 5pm.
Sunday
Cathedral Quarter Pop-Up Market, Gloucester (see directly above). From 11am to 3pm. Find out more here
The band EMF is due to play the Sub Rooms in Stroud from 8pm.
Monday
Gloucester City AFC play AFC Totton away on Monday at 3pm.
Forest Green Rovers FC play Hartlepool away at 3pm.
Tuesday
The National Business Growth Exhibition & Conference at Cheltenham Racecourse begins today. Staged over two days.
Will Abbot of Randall & Payne will host the latest business bootcamp - The 2030 Leader: Essential Skills for a changing world. See the story above in Briefing Notes for more detail.
Wednesday
A digital masterclass covering the power of AI and video that will ‘transform your digital marketing’. Due to take place at The Growth Hub, Cirencester, from 9.30am to 3.30pm.
Cotswold Networking is due to stage a business brunch club from 9.30am to 11.30am at Hotel Du Vin in Cheltenham.
Thursday
Cheltenham Chamber of Commerce is due to stage its annual general meeting on Thursday 8 May at 5.30pm. See story in Briefing Notes above.
For those in construction who need to know about health and safety. Nick Jones, HSE advisor at H & G Construction Safety Association Ltd, will lead. Due to take place from 6pm at Brickhampton Court Golf Complex.
Friday
Tewkesbury’s branch of the networking organistion BNI is due to meet from 9.30am to 11.30am the the town’s Growth Hub.
* The Raikes Journal is a community interest company. Everything you read by us is made possible by our incredible Founding Partners: QuoLux, Willans LLP, Gloucestershire College, Merrell People and Randall & Payne, our sponsors Hartpury University and Hartpury College, our Founding Members and wonderful paying subscribers.
If you upgrade to paid you’ll be part of this CIC too. We are dedicated to delivering quality journalism for Gloucestershire, to championing the county, in particular its businesses, charities, education and training providers, and to helping create an even stronger community. If you upgrade to paid you will be able to see past the paywalls often put on our second and third email editions of the week, that lock all our archive after two weeks and lock our rolling Top 100 Businesses in Gloucestershire series. You will be able to comment on our stories too.
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Co-op, M&S, Harrods: Cheltenham provides answers to the latest cyber attacks
As the national media spread the news that major UK retailers had faced potentially damaging cyber attacks, a gathering of Gloucestershire businesses and experts took place in Cheltenham to discuss.
By Andrew Merrell.
News that two of the UK’s major retailers were admitting to coming under attack from cyber criminals sent shockwaves through the business community.
If M&S and the Co-op were vulnerable then who was next? That answer came by the evening, when Harrods went public too. It didn’t help calm anyone’s nerves.
In between times, away from media noise and rampant speculation about who these ‘dark forces’ could be, Gloucestershire businesses gathered to hear from cooler heads about what to do.
As all experts in cyber security will tell you, if your business has not been subject to such nefarious forces it will be; the best prepared are the ones with the best chance of survival.
“There is definitely a sense that ‘if organisations like M&S and the Co-op can’t get it right what hope have the rest of us got?’,” said Neil Smith, of managed IT service and security provider ReformIT.
Smith was leading a session for county firms, in partnership with Cheltenham-based cyber network CyNam ,at the University of Gloucestershire's FuturePark campus - convened just hours after the attacks on M&S and the Co-op.
The format aimed to deliver the best advice for the moment, share best practice, solve challenges and make everyone’s organisations more resilient.
The room was, unsurprisingly, buzzing with conversations - and delivering lots of food for thought for businesses too.
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