Cyber attacks will happen.
Business damage doesn't have to.

Absolutely not! We believe that every business should be practicing good cyber hygiene.

In 2023, there was a 42% increase in breaches in businesses with 11-50 employees. Large enterprises usually have more advanced security systems set up, so cyber criminals test their ransomware on smaller targets. It's also a more lucrative market - there are millions of small businesses, and if they don't have their security sorted, they're more likely to pay ransoms, and even that doesn't guarantee you'll get your data back.

These days it's a question of when will your business be the target of a cyber attack, not if. Making sure you've got systems set up to combat that is a great way to make sure if you get knocked down, you get back up again.

Plus it shows you take the security of your staff and your customer data seriously.

Firstly, you'll give yourself peace of mind that your business isn't low-hanging fruit for a cyber criminal trying their luck - that's up to 80% of cyber-attacks! While no security system is 100% foolproof, aligning with certain standards can significantly reduce the risk of attacks.

It's also a great way to show your customers and prospects that you're working to secure your business against cyber attacks. Some prospects might require alignment or certification in certain standards before considering working with you. The main one we see is Cyber Essentials. If you want to get certified, we can help with that too.

If you work or want to work with the government, some contracts specifically require Cyber Essentials certification. So even if right now you don't have those contracts, they'll be much easier to get when it comes to certifying, because you'll already know that the right controls are in place.

Certification is a great trust builder and a way to separate yourself from your competition. Being Cyber Essentials Certified shows your customers and prospects that you care about the data you hold, and that you are dedicated to making sure your business can weather a cyber incident.

Having your cyber security sorted is a bit like having insurance (no, cyber insurance doesn't count). You hope you won't need it, but if push comes to shove, it's there to back you up.

The best way to think about it is: how much money will you lose when you can't access any of your data, no one can work, and your customers leave because you played fast and loose with their information?

It can be easy to measure a cyber incident as "that's ok, we only lost half a day's work", but in severe situations, the true cost includes paying people who can't do anything, the price of tools to try and recover encrypted/deleted data, the price of a company to attempt recovery, the amount of time your salesperson can't sell, the potential reputational damage from the fallout, and much more.

The price of entry is much lower than it was even a few years ago, but going for the cheapest option will often leave you with bare spots. We think you should include these costs as a key part of any budget, just as you'd accept the cost of a Microsoft 365 license as part of the cost of hiring someone new.

The short answer is probably, a bit. Maybe you've got great operating practices and the services provided bolster existing good policy. Usually that's not the case though, and some things have to change - for example no one will be installing Netflix on the fly anymore.

While there might be changes to the way your business operates in how it uses and stores data, the best practices are usually related to the access people have to data. The best cyber security practices are zero-trust and least-privileged-access. It makes you think about things like whether Paul in HR really needs admin-level access to all of your SharePoint sites, or if Sarah in sales needs access to your confidential employee information. They probably don't.

By reducing access to where it's needed, it means that if Paul or Sarah have their accounts compromised, there's only a certain level of data that can be affected, because they don't have access to anything else.

Remote working is the biggest reason you should get your cyber security in order. People are connecting to networks here, there, and everywhere - the local Starbucks, their pal's house, that one weird wifi network you're not sure who it belongs to but it works. All of these are a risk to your data because you can't guarantee that those networks are safe.

We make sure that your devices are locked down and controllable in a way that means if something dodgy looks like it's going on, a device or user can be stopped from accessing data quickly to avoid an bigger problem