SME Security Challenges

A typical SME business faces considerable challenges at the best of times; the combination of recent political, economic and pandemic events have tested many organisations to their limits. And yet, in this environment, consideration of an additional threat source is necessary. The numbers and advanced capabilities of cybersecurity attacks are increasing each day, and their focus is moving away from traditional large targets towards SMEs. As a result, most SMEs recognise that they should be looking at their cybersecurity posture. The problem is that they often do not have the time or the capability to devote to this problem.

The SME Cybersecurity Marketplace

The marketplace for affordable cybersecurity services now contains a significant amount of noise when it comes to competing vendors. Many of these may have some experience in analysing businesses on a case-by-case basis, but very few have the expertise in extrapolating the relevant risks. This has lead to a plethora of low-cost, cookie-cutter services that tend to cloud the waters and prevent businesses from getting visibility of their true cybersecurity posture. SMEs often end up spending money on such low-quality services in the mistaken belief that something is better than nothing. Sadly, consultants not backed up by the relevant experience and expertise will take clients' money and leave them with a false sense of security that makes things worse. As a result, clients may think that they are adequately protected when they are not, and worse, they may stop taking active measures to protect their business in the belief that their systems are secure. These services typically involve a short and intense activity level for a few days, resulting in the client receiving a report. This activity is great if the service is competent and the client wants to know their security posture on the issue date of the report. However, what it doesn't do is provide ongoing support as the business evolves. It doesn't react to new and credible threats that subsequently appear or respond to changes in how the company operates. It does not establish a trust relationship where the business owner can get fast, competent advice when they need it when they suspect that a cyber-attack has occurred.

Introducing EasyCyber

Salus Cyber recognised a genuine need to offer SME's high-quality services that would deliver proportionate and adequate security protection in a manner that would be affordable. To solve this problem, it has developed EasyCyber. This subscription-based Cyber-as-a-Service offering provides ongoing support tailored to the client's individual needs for a reasonable monthly fee built into the business's cost model. The service builds on the Government's Cyber Essentials scheme, which provides a nationally recognised benchmark of security preparedness, free cyber insurance cover and an official badge to add to marketing materials to act as a market differentiator. While this may be an affordable solution, the service is backed by the resources of a widely respected professional security consultancy provider that ensures clients receive a high-quality solution.

EasyCyber's Credentials

Large businesses do not operate under the same financial constraints as SMEs and have adopted cybersecurity at the corporate level using high-quality professional products and services. However, these large businesses only account for twenty per cent of the economy. That leaves a staggering eighty per cent of the economy generated by SME's who rarely have adequate security controls. With the increasing threat levels in both occurrence rates and sophistication, this national threat is recognised, but the market's solutions are not yet widely adopted. Underpinning the affordable services offered by EasyCyber are the recognised technical prowess of the Salus Cyber professional consultants. This support assures clients that the advice they receive is correct and complete. A comprehensive service that turns over all the stones searching for issues, not just the obvious ones.

EasyCyber in a Nutshell

The goal of EasyCyber is to be the starting point for an SME looking to start its cybersecurity journey. As the business adapts, evolves and grows, the security services will follow in step. Once the SME reaches the point where it is sufficiently mature and profitable, it can consider leveraging more bespoke professional security consultancy services, such as Salus Cyber, that can focus on the niche risks that the business faces. Easy Cyber provides a Cyber Essential Readiness Scorecard to measure the likelihood of a successful application to become accredited. The resulting scorecard reports against 5 key criteria and highlights areas for improvement. Following accreditation to Cyber Essentials, we aim to continually analyse and evaluate your cybersecurity posture, building maturity in cybersecurity alongside the maturity of your business.

Cyber-as-a-Service

The service offering is built around tiered services that start with the free of charge external vulnerability management and open-source intelligence services and then develop in conjunction with the size of the business to include more advanced features. Although all tiers provide a suggested starting point, EasyCyber recognises that no two companies are alike. Each client may need a tailored service depending on their organisation's nature, business offerings, and the marketplace it inhabits. Services are centred around monthly objectives bespoke to your concerns and risks, that EasyCyber plans to expand into the future with secure user-managed web-based dashboards to maximise information accessibility. The goal is for clients to understand where they are in their security journey, what steps they need to take now and where their journey will take them going forward into the future.

In Summary

EasyCyber has been created to deliver accessible and affordable cybersecurity at a fair cost for SMEs without compromising quality. The Cyber-as-a-Service subscription-based tiers grow with your business, building a resilient cybersecurity roadmap for the long-term with support from suitably qualified and experienced professional consultants. EasyCyber helps you to level up your cybersecurity game If you’re looking to become Cyber Essentials accredited, complete our free readiness scorecard to highlight areas of improvement, and lead you to success. The output covers different areas of focus that are required to be of a minimum standard to pass. We at EasyCyber are here to help achieve a successful and sustainable cybersecurity posture.