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The Cybercrime Awareness Clinic is based in the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice. The clinic provides cybercrime awareness advice to individuals, community groups, schools, colleges and small and medium organisations (SMEs, including businesses, charities and non-profit organisations) in �������� and the surrounding area, as well as conducting research into cybercrime awareness and prevention.

In April 2020, we published a Victims of Computer Misuse report, commissioned by the Home Office. Read the .

Launched in 2017, the Cybercrime Awareness Clinic began as a 2-year project funded by Hampshire Constabulary. The project aimed to develop and pilot an innovative research and collaboration space to help raise awareness of cybercrime among the local community and organisations, and help them build resilience to it.

The project had 3 main strands:

• to provide advice to vulnerable groups in the local �������� community, focusing mainly on young people in schools and colleges, small and medium organisations (SMOs) and older people (60+)
• to increase the knowledge of the cybercrime threats and risks that relate to the above populations and assist the police in providing a more efficient and tailored response to local cybercrime
• to develop a transferable model for the implementation of cybercrime awareness clinics in other parts of the country.

You can find out more about the results of our initial pilot project by .

If you would like further information in relation to the transferable model for the implementation of cybercrime awareness clinics, please contact us, as we are able to offer advice, training and consultancy services.

Current activities

Advice and training to local community groups and organisations

The Cybercrime Awareness Clinic provides advice and training to members of the public, community groups, schools, colleges and SMOs in �������� and the surrounding area, to raise awareness of and build resilience to cybercrime. Please contact us for further details of these services.

Student Placements

The Cybercrime Awareness Clinic is an optional module of the BSc (Hons) Criminology and Cybercrime degree, providing hands-on practical opportunities for students to become involved in clinic activities, contributing to student learning and employability.

Research and Innovation

Cybercrime Awareness Clinic staff are currently engaged in research at national and international levels:

• Cyber Clinics is a two-year -funded project providing cybercrime awareness guidance to SMEs and support to organisations that want to develop similar initiatives locally across the country. The project will also conduct research with SMEs at a national level in order to assess common cybersecurity behaviours and contribute to the development of more efficient and tailored cybercrime awareness advice, which will improve prevention and incident response mechanisms, in collaboration with the NCSC.
• ORPHEUS is a three-and-a-half-year project co-funded by , developing new integrated and aligned services for online and offline prevention of political violence by extending prevention services with private and social institutions, with young people and their educators as central actors.
•  is a 12-month cross-disciplinary project funded by the . It brings together expertise from criminology, psychology and applied ethics to investigate the causes and consequences of moral injury among police investigators exposed to extreme imagery relating to exploited children.

Our staff

How to report cybercrime

If you or someone you know has been a victim of cybercrime, you can report it to one of these organisations. 

Online fraud

 – the UK’s national fraud and cybercrime reporting centre. You can use this site to report fraud related cybercrime, online scams and viruses.

Online exploitation of children and young people

 – part of the National Crime Agency. You can use this site to report if you are a child or young person and something has happened online which has made you feel unsafe, scared or worried. You can also report to CEOP if you are an adult who is concerned that a child is being sexually abused or groomed online.

 – for reporting (anonymously if you wish) images and videos of child sexual abuse

Online radicalisation

Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH) – if you are concerned that a person is being radicalised online, you can report it to your local Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH), the details of which can be found on your local authority website.

The MASH contact details for Hampshire are:

• �������� -  +44 (0)23 9268 0810
• Southampton - +44 (0)23 8083 3003
• Isle of Wight - 01983 814 980
• For referrals elsewhere in Hampshire - 0300 551386

 – if you see any content online related to terrorism you can use this site to report it anonymously

Internet hate crime

 – provides information about internet hate crime including advice on how to report it. You can also report internet hate crime to the police via this site.

Contacting the police

In addition to the above reporting mechanisms, you may also wish to contact your local police force by ringing the non-emergency number 101.

Always dial 999 in an emergency e.g. if a crime is happening now, or if you or someone else is in immediate danger. (Follow  for more advice about when to dial 999.)