Managed cyber security for small businesses
Cyber security built into your IT support, not bolted on as a scare
Most cyber security for small businesses is sold as a separate product and a separate fright. Ours is the same monitoring, patching, sign-in security and tested backups that keep your office running, done to a named standard, with the fuller stack available as a layer when your insurer, your clients or your own nerves ask for it.
Run to the NCSC’s Cyber Essentials standards. Twenty years securing hospital, government and national-infrastructure systems. Microsoft and Datto partner.
What managed cyber security looks like for a small office
Not a security operations centre with a wall of screens. A short list of controls that stop the attacks small businesses actually get, run properly, all the time, by somebody who’s done it for hospitals and government. Cyber security for a ten-person firm is mostly discipline: the right settings on, the updates applied, the backup proven, the sign-in protected, and somebody watching for the thing that doesn’t look right.
The foundation is inside the £55 a person a month managed IT support. The fuller managed cyber security stack goes on top when there’s a reason for it: a client questionnaire, an insurer’s renewal form, a Cyber Essentials requirement, or a near miss that made everyone sit up.
The managed cyber security stack, in plain terms
Threat detection and response
Every machine watched for the behaviour of ransomware and credential theft, not just a list of known files. A compromised device is isolated automatically, in seconds, before it can spread.
Email attacks stopped first
Filtering that catches phishing, impersonation of your own directors or suppliers, and malicious attachments before anyone on your team sees them. Email is where most attacks start, so it’s where most of the stopping happens.
Breached passwords found early
Continuous credential exposure monitoring against known breach data. When a staff password turns up somewhere it shouldn’t, you know within a day, not when somebody uses it.
Backups ransomware can’t delete
Files, email and Microsoft 365 backed up to storage that attackers can’t reach, and restored on a schedule to prove it. If the worst happens, you’re back to yesterday rather than starting again.
Staff who spot the email
Monthly phishing simulations using the real tricks, with short training for whoever clicks. Fewer clicks over time, tracked, so you can show it.
Evidence for the questionnaire
Controls mapped to Cyber Essentials and the questions insurers and larger clients now ask. A written record of what’s in place, kept current, so the answer is a document rather than a scramble.
Cyber security alongside the IT support you already have
A lot of good IT providers are honest that security isn’t really their thing. Co-managed cyber security means they keep the helpdesk, the Microsoft 365 admin and the day-to-day, and we run the security layer: the detection, the filtering, the credential monitoring, the backups that are separate from the machines, the evidence. The boundary is written down so nobody’s guessing whose job the alert is.
If you’d rather one firm did all of it, that’s managed IT support with the security stack included, and Eric will tell you which fits on the call.
What it costs
The foundation is inside the £55 a person a month. The fuller managed cyber security stack is priced per person on top, agreed before we start, and it’s the same number every month. No incident-response retainers you never use, no security “tiers” designed to make the middle one look sensible.
Typical shape for a small office: managed IT support at £55, the security layer on top for the people who handle client data or money. You’d know the whole number before agreeing to anything.
Cyber security, per person
Same number every month. Agreed before we start.
Managed cyber security: the questions people ask first
Is cyber security included in the £55 IT support, or extra?
The foundation is included: antimalware on every machine, updates on a schedule, multi-factor sign-in on Microsoft 365, tested backups, monitoring. That's most of what keeps a small office safe. The fuller managed cyber security stack, threat detection and response, email filtering, credential exposure monitoring, phishing training and the compliance evidence, is a layer on top, priced per person and agreed before we start.
We already have antivirus. Isn't that enough?
Antivirus catches what it recognises. The attacks that actually land on small businesses now, ransomware, stolen passwords, a convincing email pretending to be your accountant, mostly don't look like anything on a list. Threat detection and response watches behaviour and isolates a machine when something's wrong; email filtering stops the impersonation before anyone reads it; sign-in security means a stolen password isn't enough on its own.
Can you provide cyber security alongside our existing IT provider?
Yes, that's the co-managed arrangement. They keep the day-to-day, we run the security layer, and the boundary is written down so both sides know who does what. It works well when the provider is good at support and honest about security not being their thing.
Will this get us through Cyber Essentials?
The controls map directly onto the assessment, and we run to Cyber Essentials standards ourselves. Getting a small business through it is a known piece of work rather than a project. Insurers and larger clients increasingly ask for it, so it's worth doing while things are quiet.
Do you monitor 24/7?
The monitoring runs continuously and the automated responses, isolating an infected machine, blocking a malicious email, don't wait for anyone. A person responds in the working day. That's stated plainly here rather than dressed up as a round-the-clock helpdesk that turns out to be an answering service.
Have a chat with Eric
Fifteen minutes with Eric. Bring the insurer’s questionnaire if that’s what started this.
Cyber security you don't have to think about
Built into managed IT support for small offices across the Wirral, Liverpool and Cheshire, with the full stack as a layer when you need it. Ring and a person picks up.