Five layers, in the order attackers meet them.
The controls that stop the attacks that actually happen to small businesses, built from the base up.
What actually gets small businesses breached
The uncomfortable truth: SMEs aren't breached by genius hackers, they're breached by unpatched laptops, reused passwords, phishing emails and remote access left open. That's good news — it means the defences that matter are known, affordable and deployable in weeks: endpoint protection on every device (modern EDR, not 2010 antivirus), MFA on everything that matters, patching that actually happens, email security as the front line, and backup as the last line. We build from that base rather than selling a SIEM to a twelve-person firm.
Managed firewall and network security
Your router is your front door, and consumer kit leaves it ajar. A managed business firewall gives you proper perimeter control: web filtering that blocks malicious and time-sink sites, intrusion prevention, secure remote access (a proper VPN or zero-trust access instead of exposed remote desktop — the single most common break-in route we see), and guest traffic isolated from business systems. Managed means we monitor it, patch it and change rules on request — the firewall stays a defence rather than becoming the forgotten box with a five-year-old firmware.
One team for all of it.
- Phones, broadband, WiFi, security and IT under one relationship
- A named engineer who knows your set-up
- One portal, one bill, UK support
Cyber Essentials: the certificate that wins contracts
Cyber Essentials is the UK government-backed baseline certification — increasingly a hard requirement for public-sector work and supply-chain contracts, and a genuinely useful discipline besides. We prepare businesses for Cyber Essentials and Cyber Essentials Plus: gap assessment against the five control areas, remediation, and hand-holding through certification. For many clients the certificate pays for the whole security programme by unlocking one contract.
Watching the places you can't
Two quiet services complete the picture. Dark web monitoring alerts us when your staff credentials appear in breach dumps — usually from some third-party site reusing a work password — so passwords are rotated before anyone tries them on your systems. And vulnerability scanning checks your external footprint the way an attacker would: what's exposed, what's outdated, what's misconfigured. Both are inexpensive, both routinely find something, and both beat learning about it from a ransom note.
One supplier. One bill.
Frequently asked questions
Where should a small business start with cyber security?
With the basics that stop real attacks: MFA everywhere, endpoint protection, patching, email security and tested backup. That baseline blocks the overwhelming majority of what actually hits SMEs — start there, not with the exotic stuff.
What is Cyber Essentials and do we need it?
A UK government-backed certification proving baseline security controls. It's increasingly required for public-sector and supply-chain contracts — and preparing for it fixes real weaknesses. We take you through assessment to certificate.
Is our antivirus enough?
Traditional antivirus isn't — modern endpoint protection (EDR) watches behaviour, not just known signatures, and lets us respond when something suspicious runs. It's the difference between a smoke alarm and a sprinkler system.
What is dark web monitoring?
Alerting when your business credentials appear in breach data — typically from staff reusing work passwords on third-party sites. Rotation before exploitation; simple, cheap, effective.
Do you handle remote-working security?
Yes — secure access (VPN or zero-trust) instead of exposed remote desktop, managed devices, and 365 conditional access, so working from home doesn't mean an open door.
Can you assess what we have now?
Yes — a plain-English security review: what's solid, what's exposed, what to fix first and roughly what it costs. If you're in better shape than you feared, the report says so.
Talk it through with a human
Tell us what you run today — we'll scope it honestly, quote it clearly, and tell you if you don't need us yet.