SME CYBER SECURITY
Cyber security shouldn’t be a challenge for small business owners. Be it be remote working staff, third parties relationships or online retailer – there are compelling reasons why cyber security is critical for business.
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SME Cyber Risks
For non-revenue generating tasks, SME owners usually outsource to a freelancers or an admin. For items that enable your business growth with intangible benefits, you got to get grips with it. It is the subject of cyber security.
SME get hit hard by cyber attacks around improvement areas shown in the image on the right hand side. SME News website reports these fiver reasons why SME’s can’t ignore cyber security threats:
- Business disruption
- Reputational damage
- Data loss & regulatory fines
- Intellectual Property
- Third Party Relationships
There is no absolute failsafe. If anyone says there is, they don’t understand risk management.
Small business security challenges
Although technological advancements such as latest network topologies without perimeters are making our lives easier, multiple security challenges are posed to endpoints, internet traffic, added software and cloud capabilities. The following are the main security challenges faced by small organisations:
- Lack of Preparedness – All businesses will experience security incidents in one form or another at some point. It’s not ‘if’, it’s ‘when’. Therefore, preparation is key to resilience and ensuring that the business can respond and recover as fast as possible.
- Overreliance on IT Service Providers – IT service providers solve all technological challenges for SMB as they are ‘go-to’ people for anything IT related. Cyber security is a different ball-game. Whilst it is possible your IT service provider is good at cyber security offerings, majority of the small business IT service providers are no more than product resellers for firewalls and antivirus solutions. This cyber security solution for small business sold as one stop solution is a big error.
- Budget Constraints – It is true that budgets are limited in small organisations. It is equally true that senior management is sometimes unaware of the technological edge to the business, and how SMEs are an easy target for cybercriminals. This should not be tick in the box approach if security just done for service in case of GDPR or other security compliance.
- Sensitive Information Theft (Insider Threats) – This could be information belonging to personnel or business’ IP, granular controls over data exfiltration, leakage or related incidents is need of the hour given our boundaries are diminishing. Staff, vendors or contractors are working from personal devices, or public places. Therefore, relevant controls ensure that website security for small business is an enabler for growth.
- Mobile Workforce – Although every organisation wants to make use of the latest gadgets in the market, SMBs don’t have resources and processes to think it through from risk perspective. Therefore, mobile devices, BYOD policies may present a wide gap in the IT risk posture.
SME Cyber Security Offerings
Cyber security for small businesses shouldn’t be hard. Unfortunately, buying products after products would only exacerbate the problem for small businesses. This means more data and that is equivalent to more chaos with less resources ending up with increased security risks. We justify your business case for cyber security by ensuring constant push for growth with our reliable and team expertise from delivering security consulting for more than 10 years.
We help small and medium size businesses to minimise risks to people, processes and technology in use. These could be SME web protection, SME email security or overall managed security services for small business. There is no cyber security checklist you can tick-off and be ready for tsunami! Every business has their own context, therefore, big products do not justify their investment here.
Basic Hygiene
We review all your most valuable assets, identify the areas of greatest risk and prepare you for the most common cyber attacks.
- Help with Cyber Essentials Certification
- Prepare against common attacks
- Ideal for 1-5 employees
SME Health Check
We review your major assets and the security of your communication controls, helping you to achieve your own Cyber Essentials Plus certification.
- Cyber Security Health Check and onsite debrief
- Help achieve Cyber Essentials Plus
- Phishing Testing
SME Managed
We review all your most valuable assets to identify your highest risk areas and determine the right approach to optimise your security, with an IT Health Check and Managed Services quarterly.
- SME Health Check included
- Managed Phishing and Open Source Intel
- Managed Services – Network and Applications
Recommended Read
Trusted partner providing small business security services
SME Basic Hygiene
This is the most basic and stepping stone to start securing your business. It covers the basic minimum five control areas ideally suited for small businesses. These are also the pre-requisites for Cyber Essentials certification. A one-off exercise based around self-assessment questionnaires followed by an assessment for Cyber Essentials certification, this prepares your business for the most common cyber attacks.
Recommended Read
SME Health Check
- Perimeter Firewall & Internet Gateway
- Secure Configuration
- Access Control
- Malware Protection
- Patch Management
SME Managed
For customers looking for reliable partners, we offer fully managed option that offers:
- Security Awareness Workshop
- Phishing campaigns quarterly
- Open Source Intelligence Gathering (OSINT) quarterly
- Scanning of internet-facing infrastructure and applications quarterly
Cyber Essentials is a cost-effective assurance scheme for small and medium sized enterprises which is backed by the UK government.
Organisations must be prepared to tackle such threats, with handy plans on what to do if this happens and accountability allocated via people, processes and technological controls. See our detailed post on ransomware and what to do if a business is hacked that helps SME customers.
Key Benefits of Small Business Cyber Security Services
- Establish a security conscious culture
- Minimise costs and maximise efficiency
- Demonstrate supply chain assurance
- Pro-active approach towards security
- Protect against evolving threats
- Boosts security mechanisms and encourages cultural changes
Our Process
Customer Business Insight
Services Proposal
Execution and Delivery
Data Analysis & Reporting
Debrief & Support
Our Cyber Security Testing Services
Network & Infrastructure Penetration Testing
- Protect your business against evolving network & infrastructure threats
- Check services, patching, passwords, configurations & hardening issues
- Internal, external, network segregation & device reviews
- PCI DSS, ISO 27001, GDPR Compliance support
- Helps shape IT strategy & investments
Web Application & API Pen Testing
- Assess real-world threats to web applications
- Validate secure design best practices against OWASP Top 10
- Timely check to avoid common pitfalls during development
- Ensure strong authentication, authorisation, encryption mechanisms
- Find loopholes to avoid data leakage or theft
Mobile Penetration Testing
- Assess real-world mobile app security vulnerabilities
- Validate secure design & configuration best practices
- Increased flexibility and productivity of users through secure mobile offerings
- Ensure strong mobile app authentication, authorisation, encryption mechanisms
- Find mobile app or device loopholes to avoid data leakage or theft
- PCI DSS, ISO 27001, Compliance Support
Cloud Penetration Testing
- Better visibility on cloud process aligning
- Secure validation of internal and third party integrations
- Support ever changing regulatory/compliance requirements
- Ensure strong authentication, authorisation, encryption mechanisms
- Demonstrate data security commitment
- Less is more – reduced costs, servers and staff
Digital Attack Surface Analysis
- Attack surface analysis to identify high risk areas and blind spots
- Improve your security team’s efficiency
- Streamline your IT spends
- Lower Risks and Likelihood of Data Breaches
Recent Blog Entries
What is cyber security architecture? Elements, purpose and benefits
Read about the definition of cyber security architecture, it’s meaning, elements, purpose and benefits of usage. Discover how good architectural processes are pillars of strength for data protection.
How often should you perform vulnerability scanning? Best practices shared
Read best practices around vulnerability scanning frequency and which factors help you decide how often a scan should be fun.
What is the Principle of Least Privilege?
Discover what is the principle of least privilege, examples, advantages and best practices to help organisations limiting malware and cyber attacks.
Everything you need to know about vulnerability scanning
Discover why your business needs vulnerability scanning, what it is, how to use it and how it supports risk management. Read more.
Why is cyber security important?
Discover why cyber security is important and how it acts as a growth enabler for businesses while protecting your most prized assets.
What is Cyber Kill Chain?
Discover what is cyber kill chain and how to use it effectively. Cyber kill chain vs mitre att&ck models. Read more.
What is Patch Management? How to get it right?
What is patch management and why is it important? Read about benefits & best practices to help your assets against cyber attacks.
Most common types of cyber security attacks (includes threats & attack vectors)
Discover the most common types of cyber attacks affecting businesses worldwide. It also includes a look at cyber threats and attack vectors.
What is an SMB Port? How to check for open ports 445 and 139? SMB versions explained.
Discover the basics around SMB protocol, port 445 and 139 and differences. Read about whether SMB is secure and how to protect against dangerous attacks.
What harm can computer viruses cause?
Discover what harm computer viruses cause, what they do, whether all viruses are harmful. Follow this guide to learn more about how to protect your computer.
