Sometimes Simple Is Better.
October 2026 • Building Cumbria Cyber Alerts and learning when not to automate.
The idea
CyberCumbria already had an automated national cybersecurity news feed. The next idea was to create something more local: a place where people across Cumbria could find useful scam warnings and online safety advice.
Initially, the plan was to collect local alerts automatically and display them alongside the latest cybersecurity news.
Finding reliable sources
We investigated Cumbria Police, Cumberland Council, Westmorland and Furness Council, and the National Cyber Security Centre.
Some websites were accessible, while automated requests to Cumbria Police returned a 403 Forbidden response. The accessible council homepages did not advertise RSS feeds, and finding a dependable stream of dated local scam warnings proved difficult.
We weren't going to invent incidents or present national warnings as though they had happened in Cumbria.
Building the alert system
Rather than abandon the idea, we created a small JSON-based alert system.
- A dedicated Cumbria Cyber Alerts page.
- JavaScript to display approved warning cards.
- Publication dates, affected areas and source links.
- Separate categories for Cumbria and UK-wide warnings.
- A clear message when no verified alerts are available.
We tested the system using an obviously labelled demonstration alert on an iPad, confirmed the card displayed correctly, and removed the test afterwards.
Trying automation
We also built a separate Python collector using the NCSC's existing RSS feed. It successfully collected seven candidate articles.
But the results highlighted a problem. Many were about international cyber operations, specialist vulnerabilities or general security news rather than everyday scams affecting local residents.
The collector worked technically, but it wasn't solving the problem we actually wanted to solve.
Choosing a simpler approach
We decided to keep the national cyber news feed automated and update Cumbria Cyber Alerts manually whenever a genuine, relevant warning appears.
The experimental collector was removed, while the working alert system was retained.
We also added practical guidance covering suspicious links, compromised passwords, shared banking details and money lost to scams, alongside official reporting information.
Just because something can be automated doesn't mean it should be. Reliable information matters more than a constantly changing feed, especially when people might rely on it to protect themselves from fraud.
Sometimes the best solution is the one that's easiest to maintain and most useful to visitors.