“Cybersecurity is a whole-business risk, not just an IT team problem” – Intercity Technology CEO Charlie Blakemore
Cybersecurity must be seen as a whole-business risk, not just an IT problem, in order for UK companies to properly protect themselves from this big and growing threat.
That is the message from Charlie Blakemore, CEO of Intercity Technology, the Birmingham-based managed IT and cybersecurity services provider with more than 300 employees and bases in Bolton, Bedford, Nuneaton, London and Northampton.
The 58-year-old told WM News that cyber criminals run 24/7 enterprises “which are bigger than Intercity,” based all over the world, including in the UK, and even have “the equivalent of Trustpilot scores on the dark web.”
The main weakness cyber-criminals exploit is the human element of businesses, such as weak passwords, social engineering and phishing emails, he says.
Companies often too busy staying alive to fully focus on cybersecurity
The other area of vulnerability is sheer busyness day-to-day, says Blakemore.
“I’ve presented at many events on cybersecurity to Owners, CEOs and CFOs of big firms, and they get it. They get the risks. But then they go back to their companies, and the sheer workload prevents them from really focusing on addressing the risk properly,” says the father-of-two who lives in a village in rural Shropshire.
“Then you have SMEs where everyone is just focusing on delivering the core services, just trying to stay alive, and often the challenge of implementing cybersecurity can be overlooked.”
Blakemore interacts with many SMEs in his role as a board member of the Greater Birmingham Chamber of Commerce.
“Many of those firms just could not withstand a serious ransomware attack, where criminals hack and encrypt a company’s data and demand money to release it,” he says.
The sobering tale of KNP
This was seen in the attack that took down Northampton transport firm KNP in 2023, after criminals exploited a weak employee password. All the company’s data was stolen. Unable to pay the millions demanded, the firm folded with the loss of 730 jobs.
Paul Abbott, KNP’s boss, has become an advisory partner for Intercity.
“What Paul went through was harrowing – losing everything and witnessing all of those families hurt and so many jobs being lost. It is just cruel,” Blakemore says.
For the last two years, Abbott has been working alongside Intercity to warn others of the perils of not taking cybersecurity seriously.
In the wake of major cyberattacks on big brands like M&S, Harrods and Co-op, cybersecurity must be viewed with the same seriousness as health and safety 20 years ago, Blakemore says.
Culture change is key to solving this
“Culture needs to change. In many organisations cybersecurity is often still seen as an IT problem.
“It’s not. Cybersecurity is a business problem. It needs to be treated with the gravitas it deserves.
“In the same way we need to think safety, and wear full Personal Protective Equipment when you go on a work site, we also need to think security when we go to work.”
34 years at BAE before joining Intercity as COO
Blakemore spent 34 years at BAE Systems, rising from a trainee apprentice to leading the company’s £1.2bn-a-year Global Land Business, and latterly was on the Board of its Naval Ships and Aircraft business. His various roles at BAE took him all over the globe.
He took on a Non-Exec Director role at Intercity a decade ago, and was then persuaded by Group CEO Andrew Jackson to join as COO in 2018. He became Group MD in 2020 before being appointed CEO in January 2024.
Turnover under Blakemore’s watch: £28m to £55m
Under his tenure so far, the numbers are heading in the right direction: Turnover was £28m in 2020. Today it has doubled to around £55m.
The strength of Intercity is the breadth of sectors it operates across: Manufacturing, logistics, sports, retail, defence, construction, finance and professional services, legal, and charities. It takes good practice from different industries and layers them into others. It is uniquely placed in this regard.
“Our aim is to provide the best tech solutions on offer today and tomorrow,” says Blakemore, who positions Intercity to work alongside and support companies’ in-house IT teams – “we’re very able to help as IT and cyber security are our sole focus, whereas in-house teams can often get swamped by the day-to-day demands.”
1,300 customers across multiple sectors
Intercity has circa 1,300 customers with some big-name brands among them: Edgbaston stadium , Birmingham City Football Club, Uniqlo, Arsenal FC, Polestar, Amazon, Bristol Bears Rugby, Prezzo, the Environment Agency, Stonegate pub chain, the NHS, multiple local authorities, Sport England, law firms, the Salvation Army, Winvic – you get the picture.
Intercity has two 24-7 Secure Operations Centres (SOCs) staffed by real-life humans looking for any blips or anomalies that could be cause for concern. At its Birmingham headquarters, it has a Tier 3 (of 4 tiers) Data Centre, including back-up “cloud” servers and a generator with “fuel for days” just in case of a major power or infrastructure outage.
Intercity is celebrating its 40th birthday this year. It started initially as a telecoms firm before evolving into the managed service provider (MSP) space.
AI is advancing tech faster than ever right now
“During my time in tech I’ve never seen things advancing as fast as they are today,” says Blakemore, who insists AI is “not to be feared but embraced – carefully.”
He says: “AI has made Intercity so much more efficient already, and this is just the start.”
As Intercity approaches the start of its fifth decade, the outlook is very positive.
Bright future ahead
“We’ve had record growth in the last four years,” says Blakemore.
“We are working hard to be a trusted partner for our customers. That’s our aim. It’s an exciting time for us – we’re big enough to deal with the complexity and scale of today’s business needs, but we’re still small enough to care.
“It is often said but I really mean it when I say our people are our biggest asset. We genuinely look after our customers and each other.”
Intercity is in the Top 10 UK Best Businesses to work for, which is a strong testament to this.
