tag: small business.

2026·07·18 The AI security starter kit for small business Seven free documents that take a small firm from "people are quietly using ChatGPT" to governed, defended and drilled in ninety days. A roadmap, a wall chart, a two-page policy, an agents & MCP guide, a board briefing, a self-assessment and a DPIA guide. No email gate. small business · ai · policy · plain english 5 min 2026·06·23 Making it stick: the second-half-of-2026 roadmap Part four: making the strategy run — tested backups, a rehearsed incident plan, metrics a board will read, and a month-by-month roadmap to be certified and rehearsed by Christmas. cyber essentials · iso 27001 · small business 9 min 2026·06·16 From self-assessment to assurance: Cyber Essentials Plus and ISO 27001 Part three: turning a self-assessment into assurance. What Cyber Essentials Plus actually tests on your real machines, and how to build a proportionate ISO 27001 management system that keeps the controls alive. cyber essentials · iso 27001 · small business 8 min 2026·06·09 The five controls that do most of the work Part two: the five Cyber Essentials controls one by one, what the Danzell question set now demands of each, the mistakes that fail firms at assessment, and how each maps onto its ISO 27001 counterpart. cyber essentials · iso 27001 · small business 9 min 2026·06·02 A cyber strategy for UK small business: the foundations Part one of a four-part cyber strategy for UK SMBs to run in the second half of 2026: three frameworks — Cyber Essentials, Cyber Essentials Plus and ISO 27001 — nested into one spine, plus the two decisions everything hangs on: scope and ownership. cyber essentials · iso 27001 · small business 9 min 2026·05·04 The £320 myth: what Cyber Essentials actually costs Cyber Essentials is marketed from £320. For an unprepared 10-person UK business under the new v3.3 Danzell question set, the true first-year cost is £13,000 to £30,000 over 10 to 14 weeks. Here is the breakdown. cyber essentials · small business · ned · board · governance 9 min 2024·12·10 The law, the insurance, the incident plan, and the culture that holds it all together Year-end consolidation. Your UK GDPR obligations, cyber insurance, the one-page incident response plan you need, and how to build a security culture that lasts beyond this series. small business · cyber essentials · plain english · series 9 min 2024·11·12 AI-powered threats — and the usage policy you actually need AI is making phishing better and deepfake fraud cheaper. It is also a real risk when your own staff paste customer data into ChatGPT. Both sides of the AI coin, and a simple policy that handles both. small business · cyber essentials · plain english · series 6 min 2024·10·15 The basics you can pick up and walk away with: physical security and social media Screen locks, premises, disposing of old kit, USB drives, social media account security, and the risks of oversharing. The unglamorous but high-leverage controls that prevent entire categories of attack. small business · cyber essentials · plain english · series 7 min 2024·09·10 Backups: the only thing that recovers you from ransomware The 3-2-1 rule, what to back up, why testing your backups is more important than having them, and the specific changes that protect backups from modern ransomware. small business · cyber essentials · plain english · series 6 min 2024·08·13 Malware and the layered defence Antivirus is necessary but not sufficient. The defence-in-depth approach that actually catches malware — and how it joins up with everything else we have done this year. small business · cyber essentials · plain english · series 6 min 2024·07·09 Your network: Wi-Fi, routers, and home workers Your router is your only firewall. Here is how to configure it properly, secure your Wi-Fi, set up a guest network, and look after the staff who work from coffee shops and kitchen tables. small business · cyber essentials · plain english · series 6 min 2024·06·11 Patching: the unglamorous lifesaver Why software updates matter, what actually needs updating, and how to make patching manageable for a small business without dedicated IT staff. The vegetables of cyber security. small business · cyber essentials · plain english · series 5 min 2024·05·14 Email is the front door: spotting phishing and stopping BEC Over 90% of breaches begin with email. How to spot phishing, build a reporting culture, configure SPF/DKIM/DMARC, and prevent the single most expensive small business fraud: business email compromise. small business · cyber essentials · plain english · series 7 min 2024·04·16 Locking the front door: passwords and access Password managers, multi-factor authentication, the principle of least privilege, and the leaver checklist. The single highest-value hour you will spend on cyber security all year. small business · cyber essentials · plain english · series 7 min 2024·03·12 What a cyber attack actually costs a small business The financial number is the smallest part. Operational disruption, reputational damage, and regulatory consequences are the costs that compound. Plus the positive case for getting this right. small business · cyber essentials · plain english · series 5 min 2024·02·13 Know your enemy: the threats small businesses actually face Phishing, ransomware, social engineering, malware, credential stuffing, insider mistakes, denial of service. The actual menu of threats facing UK small businesses — in plain English, without the drama. small business · cyber essentials · plain english · series 7 min 2024·01·16 Cyber security for the small business: where to start An honest start to a year-long series. What cyber security actually is, why small businesses are targeted, and the five things every small business has that attackers want. small business · cyber essentials · plain english · series 6 min