What happens when cyber safeguarding gets in the way of our communication?
You’ll meet Devon Air Ambulance staff and volunteers at fundraising events across the county, or in our shops and they are always keen to chat – and we always welcome enquiries by phone, in person, or through the forms on our website.
Every day, we hear from supporters who are keen to fundraise for us, volunteer with us, or are enthusiastic about getting involved in one of our events; we’re always keen to respond swiftly to any enquiries.
There are, however, times when we might not meet our own expectations of getting back in touch with someone who has emailed us. Here’s why.
Getting through our filters
Every day, charities everywhere are targeted with cyber attacks.
Because we prioritise the protection of our supporters’ data and we seek to protect the charity from compromise, our servers have very high security settings that filter out emails that could be harmful to our systems.
Despite our best efforts, no security measures are 100% reliable: inevitably some harmful emails do get through, but some legitimate emails are prevented from reaching us too.
Devon Air Ambulance staff regularly undergo up-to-date training so that teams can respond safely to the former, but unfortunately because there are thousands of blocked emails a day, we do not have the capacity to check each one to see if it is from a legitimate contact.
What to do next
If you have emailed us and have not received a reply within a couple of working days, please don’t give up! We want to hear from you. You can always phone us on our main number 01392 466666 and then we can move to online communication should we need to.
Your support is important to us and we will always do what we can to support you in your efforts to support us, so if your email’s not getting through, pick up the phone – we’d be happy to help.
A lot of the information you might need is available through our website, but if you would like to speak to a member of staff please phone 01392 466666.
