The Cyber Helpline is fundraising to run our service for 12 months in the USA. Our plan is to build a local team of volunteers and spend 12 months helping thousands of victims - this will help us learn more about the USA landscape and what it will take to fully launch our service.

American individuals and families need help with cybercrime & online harm

Ever since we launched in 2018 we have had thousands of Americans visiting our website and reaching out for help. In fact, we currently have more than 10,000 unique visitors to our website from the USA every month. Many of these individuals ask us to take on their case with one of our volunteer cyber security experts, but due to our available resources and lack of local knowledge in the USA we have not been able to help. We have build deep expertise locally in the UK on the threat landscape, justice & police capability, recovery options and referral pathways for our service users. Without this in place we have felt that until we built this knowledge locally in the USA we should limit our service there to our website only.

Like the UK, there is a huge gap in support for victims of cybercrime and online harm in America. Millions of victims are left to fend for themselves against cyber criminals, fraudsters and motivated malicious individuals. The impact is huge and mental health, physical health, online confidence, personal safety and the ability of individuals to live their normal lives are all affected. More needs to be done and The Cyber Helpline has a unique model that can help.

The Cyber Helpline - A unique model that is perfectly placed to support victims in the USA

The Cyber Helpline provides free, expert help to victims of cybercrime and online harm. We are a movement by the cyber security community to step in and fill the gap in support for victims. We work with those suffering online crimes to help them understand their issue, contain the threat, collect evidence, recover and learn from their experiences. To date we have supported over 24,000 victims and are currently opening more than 2,000 cases per month.

What makes our model unique is that we use a mix of an intelligent chatbot and a team of expert volunteers to help victims. Our chatbot service is 24/7 and can be used anonymously. It allows users to get a quick diagnosis for their issue and get access to immediate first response advice. Our volunteers are cyber security experts who have a deep understanding of cyber security and provide ongoing support to victims throughout their issue.

Over the past five years many USA based cyber security experts have reached out to us to offer their help - as have USA based cyber security companies. We are confident we can build the support to run our service using local resources.

Our plans

Starting early 2023 we plan to mobilise our USA efforts and start taking cases. In the first 12 months we plan to:

• Recruit, train and operate a team of 10 volunteer cybersecurity experts who will run a USA helpdesk supporting local victims.

• Support at least 3,000 victims over the 12-month period.

• Capture the local issues and needs of victims that can be built into a future service.

• Build connections with local government, police and not-for-profit organisations to ensure maximum impact of our service for victims.

• Help victims understand their issue, contain the threat, recover and learn from their experience.

• Lessen the impact on victims in the USA.

Learn more about our plans here.

How can you help?

We need funding, volunteers and people who can help us operate our service. As an individual you can donate to our USA fundraising initiative here. Organisations based - or operating in the USA - can also help. It will take the USA cyber security and cybercrime community to come together to make our first 12 months viable. We will need:

• Funding - we are looking to raise $160,000 to run the 12-month pilot. We are looking for corporate donations or sponsorship to help us raise the funds.

• Volunteers - we are looking to build a team of 10 volunteer Helpline Responders to run the service, as well as volunteers to support our threat intelligence and content teams. If your organisation has a corporate volunteering scheme in the USA or you are an individual who would like to volunteer then please get in touch.

• Partners - our partners provide tools, expertise and intelligence to help us support victims with cybercrime & online harm. If you are in the cyber industry you may be able to help.

• Not-for-profits - organisations supporting victims in other areas like harassment, domestic abuse, stalking and mental health are likely to be coming up against technical issues with their clients. Working together we can help provide a full range of support to victims.

• Professionals - to make this pilot successful we need a range of skills including marketing, finance, IT and more. If you are passionate about our cause and would like to help then please get in touch.

Please get in touch if you would like to discuss how you can support our USA initiative.