USA Helpline Advice Specialist

Type: Volunteer

Hours: Six hours per week for 42 weeks of the year

Reporting line: Helpline Manager

Location: This is a remote working role

The Cyber Helpline

The Cyber Helpline is a movement by the information security community to step in and fill the gap in support for victims of cybercrime & online harm. It is a UK charity that provides free, expert help to victims by helping them understand, contain, recover and learn from experiencing a malicious online issue. We have helped over 22,000 individuals and families in the UK. 

As The Cyber Helpline grows, we have the opportunity to expand our service to support victims in the USA and are launching a pilot.

On top of the opportunity to do some good with your skills, The Cyber Helpline will offer you the opportunity for training, skills development, mentoring and career progression. Perfect for those looking to join or progress in the cyber security industry. 

Role Summary

Helpline Advice Specialist’s will play a key role in helping The Cyber Helpline grow and support victims in the USA by helping us, in phase one of our launch, to localise our cybercrime guides advice and vernacular and identify potential referral and signposting partners. In phase two of the launch, specialists will have the opportunity to transition to a new USA Helpline Responder (see here for the UK version of this role for an example)  role where they will directly support victims of cybercrime through our helpline.

It is critical that the advice we give across our channels is up to date, relevant and easy to understand for the general public. The Advice SME will take on responsibility for updating & managing the advice we provide in one of our six domains. 

The individual will understand our current advice, monitor for changes in the threat landscape, keep up to date with the available response techniques and ensure our advice is up to date. Training will be provided.

Key Responsibilities

  • Research how the advice we provide in the UK differs to advice in the USA

  • Identify how victims report different crimes in the USA, depending on the crime and state

  • Research and support the building of partnerships and signposting opportunities with other charities and victim support services.

  • Research the threat landscape in the USA

  • Ensure advice is up to date and relevant

  • Supporting research and development. Including areas such as the threat landscape, playbook development, technology assessment and internal improvement 

Person Specification

Essential

  • Experience in the cyber security industry OR a demonstrable interest in cyber security or cybercrime

  • Strong understanding of technology and cyber security concepts 

  • Experience of helping non-computer literate individuals through IT issues

  • A personal IT infrastructure able to make online calls and access online systems

  • Good written and verbal English 

  • A calm, friendly and understanding disposition

  • The ability to follow procedures laid out by The Cyber Helpline

  • Experience working with confidential/sensitive information 

Preferred, but not necessary

  • Experience of working in a customer service role 

  • Experience of completing thorough and precise administration duties 

  • An awareness of mental health

  • Helpdesk experience

  • An interest in working on further projects on an ad-hoc basis as required by The Cyber Helpline