Working Practices Archives - H2 Cyber Security for SMEs

TARGET PROFILING AND SOCIAL ENGINEERING

I frequently share insights on the significance of Cyber Awareness Training and its critical role in helping organisations defend against cybercrime. Cyber awareness training is a vital aspect of contemporary security strategies for everyone. It provides employees with the essential knowledge and skills needed to identify, respond to, and reduce cyber threats. This training is particularly effective in combating social engineering. It is arguably the quickest and cheapest measure an SME can implement to shore up their defences.

While many people are now familiar with the term social engineering, they may not fully understand its meaning. In the context of cybersecurity, social engineering involves manipulating, influencing, or deceiving individuals to gain unauthorised access to IT systems or to steal personal and financial information. It employs psychological tricks to lead users into making security errors or divulging sensitive data. The most prevalent form of social engineering is phishing.

Social engineering heavily relies on the six Principles of Influence identified by Robert Cialdini, a behavioural psychologist and author of “Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion.” These six principles are: Reciprocity, Commitment and Consistency, Social Proof, Authority, Liking, and Scarcity. Simply put, what these criminals seek is information, login credentials, passwords, names, phone numbers, and more. They are profiling your organisation to identify vulnerabilities, such as who manages accounts payable or whether you have an IT support company under contract that they could impersonate. In addition to phishing, they utilise various forms including vishing (voice phishing), smishing (SMS phishing), and simply calling to ask questions.

A rising threat that criminals are increasingly adopting is help desk social engineering tactics. In these schemes, attackers call an organisation’s IT help desk while posing as a legitimate employee, trying to convince the help desk agent to reset passwords or multi-factor authentication (MFA) for a specific account.

In recent years, these techniques have been used to access single sign-on (SSO) accounts and cloud-based application suites. Multiple criminals adopted this approach in 2024, targeting academic and healthcare institutions; in these cases, attackers utilised compromised identities to extract data from cloud-based software as a service (SaaS) application or alter employee payroll information.

It is important to keep in mind that profiling isn’t about technology. Profiling uses social engineering techniques before it starts scanning your network for vulnerabilities.

Let’s now look at a scenario which we have entitled, “The Helpful IT Contractor”

Reconnaissance (Profiling the Target)

An attacker spends time gathering information about a mid-sized company:

Reviews employee profiles on LinkedIn
Identifies the IT helpdesk structure
Finds names of recent hires and projects
Notes that the company recently adopted a new cloud platform

The attacker now knows enough to sound convincing.

Initial Contact (Pretexting)

The attacker calls the finance department pretending to be:

“Hi, this is Alex from IT support. We’re fixing an issue with the new system rollout.”

They:

Use real employee names to build trust
Mention the actual cloud migration project
Create urgency: “We need to resolve this before payroll processing today”

Exploitation Attempt

The attacker asks the employee to:

Confirm their login details “for verification”
Install a “security patch” (malware)
Or approve a multi-factor authentication (MFA) request

If successful, the attacker gains:

System access
Credentials for lateral movement
Potential access to financial systems

How This Can Be Detected

Red Flags

Unexpected calls asking for credentials
Urgency or pressure (“must be done now”)
Requests that bypass normal IT procedures
Slight inconsistencies (email domain, phone number, tone)

Technical Indicators

Unusual login attempts (time/location anomalies)
Multiple MFA push requests
New software installation outside standard processes

How to Stop the Attack

People Controls

Train staff to:

Never share passwords or MFA codes
- Verify identity via official channels
- Challenge unusual requests—even from “IT”
- Encourage a “pause and verify” culture

Process Controls

Enforce strict IT support procedures:
No credential requests via phone/email
All changes logged through a ticketing system
Require call-back verification using known numbers
Implement approval workflows for sensitive actions

Technology Controls

Multi-factor authentication (with number matching, not just push)
Endpoint protection to block unauthorized installs
Email and call filtering systems
Identity monitoring (detect unusual behaviour patterns)

Example of a Successful Defence

An employee receives the call but:

Refuses to share credentials
Reports the incident to IT/security/line manager
IT confirms no such request exists
Security team blocks the attacker’s number and flags related activity

Attack stopped before any damage.

Key Takeaway

Social engineering works by exploiting trust, urgency, and human behaviour—not technical vulnerabilities. The strongest defence is a combination of:

Aware people
Clear processes
Enforced technology controls

Cyber Awareness training isn’t a nice to have, it’s essential Your staff can be a very effective first line of defence, or they can be your biggest weakness. Such training is an iterative process; it should be done on induction and then at regulator intervals through the year. It is not a fire and forget process.

This training doesn’t need to be costly; it can be delivered face-to-face, online, or through automated means. At H2, we offer all these options! Regardless of your choice, please consider this training an essential component of your strategy.

If you’d like more information on this topic, let’s chat!

Ransomware 101: What Every SME Needs to Know

Ransomware is something that we tend to only hear about when it hits the news, usually referring to an attack on a major corporate organisation or a government body. But it’s happening to a much wider range of businesses, and it tends to be a very much under-reported issue, particularly when it affects SMEs, which it does more often than you’d think. In a post last week, I referred to the attack on Knights of Old, a mid-sized transport company which was taken down in a very short space of time by a ransomware attack, from which they never recovered. I wrote a piece a couple of months ago which highlighted the issue of under-reporting. I won’t regurgitate it here, but if you want to read up on it, the link is Under-reported security incidents.

Overall, SMEs are particularly vulnerable because they often lack robust cybersecurity resources and recovery capabilities. A ransomware attack can have severe and often disproportionate impacts on small or medium-sized businesses:

Operational disruption: Critical systems and data become inaccessible, halting day-to-day business activities.
Financial loss: Costs may include ransom payments, recovery expenses, lost revenue, and potential regulatory fines.
Data loss or exposure: Sensitive customer or business data may be encrypted, stolen, or leaked.
Reputational damage: Loss of customer trust can lead to reduced sales and long-term brand harm.
Legal and compliance risks: Breaches of data protection laws (i.e. GDPR) can trigger investigations and penalties.
Business continuity risk: In severe cases, prolonged downtime can threaten the survival of the business.

Let’s now use a scenario to illustrate the problem. The scenario is fictitious but has been constructed from real events.

It started like an ordinary Tuesday morning for BrightLane Logistics, a 45-person SME based just outside Manchester. They specialised in same-day delivery for local retailers, and their entire operation depended on a cloud-based booking system, a small internal server, and a handful of laptops used by dispatchers and drivers.

The Entry Point

At 9:12 AM, Sarah, a finance assistant, received what appeared to be a routine email from a known supplier. The message referenced an overdue invoice and urged her to review an attached document. The email address looked legitimate at a glance, just one letter off from the real domain.

Busy and under pressure, Sarah downloaded the attachment: “Invoice_April2026.xlsm.”

When she opened it, nothing obvious happened, just a blank spreadsheet and a prompt to “Enable Content.” She clicked.

That single action executed a hidden macro. Within seconds, a small piece of malicious code connected to a remote server and quietly installed ransomware on her machine.

Attackers do their homework. They will have spent time profiling this company and its staff. They will have researched them on Companies House, seen their last financial postings, and will have carried out various innocuous social engineering exercises to discover who does what within the company, and who their suppliers and customers are. They maximise the chance of an employee clicking the link in the email.

The Spread

Because BrightLane had weak internal network segmentation and shared admin credentials across several systems, the malware didn’t stay contained. It harvested saved passwords from Sarah’s machine and moved laterally across the network.

By lunchtime:

The shared file server was infected
The dispatch system was compromised
Backup drives connected to the network were also encrypted

No alarms were triggered. BrightLane had basic antivirus, but no advanced detection or monitoring tools.

The Detonation

At 2:03 PM, screens across the office flickered.

Files began changing names. Systems slowed to a crawl. Then everything locked.

A message appeared:

“Your files have been encrypted.

To regain access, pay X Bitcoin within 72 hours.

After that, your data will be permanently deleted.”

Phones started ringing immediately. Drivers couldn’t access delivery routes. Customers couldn’t place orders. The warehouse team had no visibility of scheduled shipments. Operations ground to a halt.

The Immediate Consequences

Within hours:

All deliveries stopped
Customer service was overwhelmed
Financial systems were inaccessible
Staff were sent home early

The managing director, Tom, faced a brutal reality: the company could not operate.

They contacted their IT support provider, but it quickly became clear:

Backups were unusable (they had been encrypted too)
No incident response plan existed
Recovery could take weeks, if at all possible

The Decision Point

The ransom demand equated to roughly £120,000.

Paying it came with no guarantee of recovery as well as potential legal and ethical implications. Not paying meant:

Permanent data loss
Severe operational disruption
Potential business closure

Meanwhile, the attackers escalated pressure by threatening to leak sensitive customer data.

The Longer-Term Impact

Over the following weeks:

Financial Damage

Lost revenue from halted operations
Cost of external cybersecurity experts
Legal and regulatory compliance expenses

Reputational Harm

Customers lost trust
- Key clients moved to competitors

Regulatory Consequences

A data breach investigation was triggered
- Potential fines for failing to protect customer data

Internal Fallout

Staff morale dropped sharply
- Leadership faced scrutiny over the lack of preparedness

The Aftermath

BrightLane eventually chose not to pay the ransom. They rebuilt their systems from scratch, but it took nearly a month to resume partial operations.

By then:

30% of their customer base was gone
- Cash reserves were severely depleted
- The company had to downsize

The Lesson

The attack didn’t rely on sophisticated zero-day exploits. This wasn’t one failure; it was a chain of small, common weaknesses, which, taken together, created a complete business shutdown:

One phishing email
One click
One flat network
One set of shared credentials
One poorly designed backup system

For BrightLane, the ransomware attack wasn’t just an IT issue; it became an existential business crisis.

SMEs can’t do everything, and if I were to prioritise measures that could produce the biggest risk reduction, taking into account limited budgets, I would recommend the following:

MFA everywhere (especially email & admin accounts)
Offline/immutable backups
Cyber Awareness training for staff and managers
EDR instead of basic antivirus
Remove shared admin credentials
Network segmentation (even simple VLANs)
Some form of managed detection and response

Don’t think it won’t happen to you. It can and does happen to SMEs in the UK, many of whom pay up and don’t report it. I understand why they do this, but it doesn’t help the overall problem, as it disguises the frequency and the damage done. It’s much cheaper in the long run to take preventative action than it is to try to recover once it’s happened.

H2 provides affordable and flexible one-off and ongoing data protection and cyber risk protection services.

To learn more about the services we provide, please click here https://www.hah2.co.uk/

Alternatively, please feel free to give us a call or drop us an email:

M: 07702 019060

E: kevin_hawkins@hah2.co.uk

Trust H2 – Making sure your information is secure

Watch, Detect, Protect: Detecting Cyber Attacks Before They Start

Imagine a small business owner who runs a 25-person company providing financial services to firms and individuals. He knows cyber threats are “a thing,” and in fact, one of his customers required basic security controls before signing a contract. And so, he took advice from his network provider, a local IT reseller, and he purchased a bundle: antivirus software, a firewall appliance, and a cloud backup service.

From his perspective, everything seems covered:

The antivirus dashboard shows green checkmarks.
The firewall has flashing lights and a web interface that he never logs into.
The backup system sends a weekly email saying, “Backup completed successfully.”

But here’s the reality:

He has no meaningful way to tell if any of this is actually protecting him.

A few subtle issues are happening behind the scenes:

The antivirus hasn’t detected anything, not because threats aren’t present, but because it’s misconfigured and only running quick scans.
The firewall rules were set up once by the reseller and never reviewed; several unnecessary ports are still open.
Backups are completing, but no one has ever tested restoring them, so they may be incomplete or unusable.
Staff occasionally click phishing emails, but those incidents go unnoticed because there’s no monitoring or reporting in place.
He doesn’t have a clear idea of what data he is holding and what that data may reasonably be classified as, i.e. highly sensitive or sensitive, or not sensitive at all. Neither does he really have an idea who has access to what, either at a user level or worse, at an administrator level.

One day, an employee unknowingly installs malware from a phishing link. The attacker gains access to the company’s systems and quietly exfiltrates sensitive client data over several weeks.

Throughout this entire period:

No alerts reach any level of management in a way they understand.
No KPI or metric tells them, “You are under attack”, or even “your defences are being exercised.”
The tools continue to report “all good” because they are measuring activity (i.e., scans completed), not effectiveness (i.e., attacks prevented).
He assumes that “no news is good news.” In reality, he’s operating in a visibility gap:
He doesn’t know what “normal” vs “suspicious” looks like.
He has no baseline metrics (i.e., number of blocked threats, phishing simulations, patch status).
He lacks independent validation (like audits, vulnerability assessments, or even simple security reports translated into business terms).

So, when a client later informs him of a data breach traced back to his company, it’s a complete shock. From his perspective, he did everything right; he bought the tools. But he never had a way to measure whether those tools were correctly configured, actively working, or aligned to real threats.

This is a common SME problem: security is treated as a one-time purchase rather than an ongoing, measurable process. Without clear, understandable metrics or external validation, the owner is essentially flying blind, relying on reassuring dashboards instead of actual evidence of protection.

The question then becomes what can an SME do to protect itself from these issues. The first problem is to recognise that they don’t have any in-house resource that can deal with these problems, and neither can they afford such a resource. At best, their IT systems are overseen by someone who has another primary function and hasn’t got much time to deal with IT issues, has no technical background, much less a cybersecurity background, and whose responsibility lies with liaising with their network provider.

Now, let’s deal with the network provider that supplied the security tools. These companies work to Ts&Cs that will concisely lay down what services they provide under any network maintenance contract. Such contracts may include administration of the network, adding and taking away access rights, or they may just refer to routine maintenance and troubleshooting. Whatever it is, an SME must have a clear understanding of what those Ts&Cs say. You may be under the impression that they are covering things that they simply aren’t. This is often the case with cybersecurity. This is because they themselves don’t have a handle on how cybersecurity hangs together. They concentrate on supplying products such as firewalls and AV, and on how to install and configure such products. They may also handle AV updates, and in that case, you need to be very clear about how they do that and how they assure you that it is done.

Be clear, I’m not denigrating these companies or the services they supply, simply pointing out that they work to strict service levels as laid down in the contract and will often not step outside of these.

To sum up, we are now at the point where we recognise that SMEs in general do not have a handle on how effective their security actually is, on where their sensitive data sits and how it’s accessed and handled. They don’t have anyone on staff who has an understanding of cybersecurity, and there is a good chance that their network contract doesn’t include any sort of security monitoring and alerting. The question now becomes, is there anything they can do about it?

Until quite recently, what we called protective monitoring, which is now more formally called Managed Detection and Response, along with Data Loss Prevention Systems, were very much out of reach of an SME on financial terms, and as such the majority of SMEs didn’t just not invest in them, they never really knew about them because the corporate level providers, never pitched to them because they knew they couldn’t afford it.

There are now systems on the market, AI-driven, that have managed to hit a price point that an SME can afford. These systems may not be as comprehensive as you might find in a large company or central government department, but they do match the requirements for most SMEs. You don’t need to understand AI; it’s built into the system and operates seamlessly. What it does is to allow one operator to manage multiple clients at the same time, because the AI does the heavy lifting. In this way, not only is the system itself affordable, but the managed service it supports also becomes affordable.

To maximise its cost effectiveness, it has additional capabilities such as vulnerability assessment, phishing simulations and cyber awareness training programmes, making it more attractive. The whole package needs to emulate enterprise-grade protection without the cost and complexity of a full-blown Security Operations Centre (SOC). Delivering it as a service reduces cost by cutting out the need for an in-house team.

In a nutshell, an SME would want this system because it delivers near enterprise-level cybersecurity protection, reduces business risk, improves compliance, and protects revenue without needing an internal cybersecurity department. It provides peace of mind; you don’t have to worry about this, let someone else take the strain, while you focus on your business.

To help explain this easily, I have produced a very short video which you can find on the Features Section on my LinkedIn profile. But if you don’t want to view that, what follows is an introduction to what the service offers.

Continuous monitoring of endpoints, servers, and some cloud environments
Rapid detection of ransomware, malware, insider threats, and advanced attacks
Expert-led response
Phishing simulations
Cyber awareness training programme
Dark web monitoring
Auditing your data, identifying what is sensitive and what isn’t; providing file-level encryption and tracking data movements around your network and where it goes when sending it to outside agencies.

In short, it provides the business benefit of reduced risk of downtime, data loss, and reputational damage.

This service comes with vulnerability assessment built into it. Such assessments are available elsewhere as both software and a service, but they would not be integrated into an overall protection, would come at additional cost, and would need to have a level of expertise to interpret the results.

Vulnerability assessments:

Identify outdated software, misconfigurations, and exposed services
Prioritise risks based on severity
Provide remediation guidance

Most breaches happen because of known, unpatched vulnerabilities. Regular scanning helps prevent attacks before they happen. It is a proactive risk reduction instead of reactive damage control.

The system also offers built-in protection against human error (Phishing Simulation).

Over 80–90% of cyber breaches start with phishing. A phishing simulation programme:

Test employee awareness safely
Identifies high-risk users
Reinforces learning through practical scenarios

It helps reduce successful phishing attacks and reduces the likelihood of credential compromise or ransomware infection. Such simulations are an integral part of cyber awareness training.

The system also assists in building a security culture (CBEE Awareness Training Programme). A structured awareness programme:

Trains staff on cyber hygiene and data protection
Covers password security, social engineering, safe browsing, and more.
Assists compliance with regulations (GDPR, ISO 27001, Cyber Essentials, etc.)

Cybersecurity isn’t just technology, it’s behaviour. Training reduces internal risk significantly and turns employees from a security liability into a security asset.

A managed system such as this can also help with compliance & insurance requirements. Many SMEs now face:

Regulatory obligations
Supply chain security requirements
Cyber insurance conditions

Having a managed service, vulnerability management, and training demonstrates due diligence and can reduce insurance premiums or improve insurability.

These last 2 points are very important to an SME: Cost Predictability & Simplicity. As a managed service, everything is:

Subscription-based
Centralised under one provider
Fully supported by trained personnel

No need to buy multiple tools, manage updates, or maintain in-house expertise.

In business terms, you are getting executive-level risk reduction with a simple value:

Reduced likelihood of business interruption
Reduced financial exposure
Protection of brand and customer trust
Clear reporting and measurable risk reduction

All through this article, I’ve talked about cost-effectiveness. So, what does this service cost? I’ll add the BBC caveat – other systems are available!! We charge £15 per seat per month for the technical system and £15 per seat per month for the data leakage protection system. Discounts are available for clients who take both systems, and you get a lot for your money. It’s a 30-day rolling contract, no long-term lock-in, simply 30 days’ notice to quit. We also offer a totally free 14-day trial that is fully functional, so you can see the outputs from your own system, rather than look at demos with dummy data.

Cyber Security Policies – A Must Have or a Nice to Have

I’ve written about this a couple of times now but it’s worth reminding people that policies and attendant processes are a cost-effective necessity in terms of cyber security. How important are policies and processes in comparison with technology, when it comes to Cyber Security and its sister discipline, data protection. The clue is that in Cyber Security we refer to People, Process and Technology, in that order.

Top of this list is People, and I’ve written extensively about how important cyber awareness training is for all, managers and employees alike. This piece is all about policies and processes. First and foremost, policies have to be relevant to the organisation and not just downloaded from the internet, maybe with a few modifications, before applying a tick in the box and moving on. Policies have to mean something and have a purpose. Many organisations I go to either have some very scant policies or actually, none at all.

I often talk about risk in terms of cyber security and how managing that risk is extremely important. And that means understanding what those risks actually are, and then taking steps to mitigate them. When I talk about this, I can often see the wheels turning and the audience thinking technology and how much is that going to cost them. Well, it’s often the case that technology is not the answer. There are many risks where a good policy, promulgated to, and understood by all, can save the company money.

A good example of that is a fairly common scam that tends to costs SMEs between 5 and 50K depending upon the size of business. How this is achieved is that the scammer or let’s call him/her what he/she is, the criminal, spends some time profiling the company, using various social engineering techniques to work out how the company is organised and who is who. You may be surprised as to how much of that information is freely available on the company website, companies house and other sources. Having discovered who the boss is, and who looks after invoice payments, the criminal then ‘spoofs’ the bosses email. Email spoofing, in simple terms, is sending an email purporting to come from someone else. So, it arrives purporting to come from the boss, but it’s from the scammer. Such an email is sent to the person who pays invoices, with an invoice attached, saying please pay this as a matter of urgency. This happened not so lo g ago to someone I know, and when it arrived in the accounts department it didn’t look genuine to the payments clerk, who replied to the email asking if the boss was sure. Of course, she got an email back saying yes, I’m sure. She paid it and the company lost over 30K. The accounts clerk was clearly switched on but she made a basic error, because she didn’t know any different. If she had sent a fresh email to the boss querying the invoice, it would have gone to the boss who could have stopped the transaction. Instead, she replied to the email and her reply went back to the scammer. A policy which dictates fresh emails rather than using the reply function, and known to all, would have saved the company a lot of money.

Policies and attendant processes are essential for the protection of company data and the bottom line, company money. What needs to be covered and in what depth, depends on the risks that the company is facing, and will differ company to company depending on its type. In broad terms, and as an absolute minimum, the following are required:

Overarching IT security policy – often this only needs to say very clearly what responsibilities employees have in regard to security and data protection, lay down a requirement and responsibility for cyber awareness training, and state that all employees are to be cognisant of all the policies and are to sign that they have read and understood them. And most importantly, it must be signed off at board level making it clear that this is a crucial requirement.
IT Acceptable Use Policy – what is, and what is not, an acceptable use for company IT.
IT Email Policy
IT password policy
IT Mobile working policy – essential for mobile workers who may be tempted to work from a coffee shop, and of course, working from home. This latter might be a separate policy or can be part of the mobile working policy.
Data Protection Policies – a whole other subject.
Social media policy – this can be really important. Probably 100% of your employees will have a social media presence and will use it daily. How important is it that they don’t associate themselves with the company on their private social media? Depends on the person but it could be damaging in reputational terms. The company might also do some digital marketing on social media. Who is, and who is not, allowed to get involved with that function.

This is not an exhaustive list. It depends very much on risks that needs mitigating. They will also be accompanied by processes to support the policy.

Cyber Security Strategies for SMEs

What is a Cyber Security Strategy

A cyber security strategy is a plan that outlines an organisation’s approach to protecting its information systems and data from cyber threats. This strategy typically includes measures such as implementing security controls, conducting regular risk assessments, training employees on security best practices, monitoring network activity for suspicious behaviour, and responding to security incidents in a timely manner. The goal of a cyber security strategy is to minimise the risk of cyber-attacks and protect the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of an organisation’s sensitive information.

Do I really need that – I’m an SME and not really a target, am I?

Well yes, you are a target and there are a ton of statistics available which shows that SMEs globally are a very real target for cyber-attacks and can in fact, be very profitable for cyber criminals. There are a lot of reasons for that but one of the top reasons is that typically, SMEs spend very little on cyber defence and generally have very weak defences. Add to this that they don’t tend to carry out cyber awareness training for their staff, have limited resources and generally don’t have a good grasp of the issues.

Not their fault. Most are focused on their core business, trying make a quid or two and are pressed for time. They tend to rely on whatever company, usually local, that supplied their network, hardware and software, generally on a retainer. The problem is that those companies don’t really have a good grasp of the issues either, concentrating on technology, and then, not necessarily the right technology.

When it comes to cybersecurity governance and management, there is no “one size fits all” approach. In today’s threat landscape we need to fully understand that cyber security is not a purely technical problem, focused on hardware and endpoint protection and on operations within the organisational perimeter. Today we are dealing with cloud storage, in office and remote working, data at rest and in transit, involving security at every point along the route.

It is critical that someone within the organisation has to take responsibility for cyber security and that person must have a seat on the Board. A Board-level response is not just appropriate; it is essential.

Secure by default and design

Now that’s an interesting title, but what does it mean? Secure by default and design means that a system or product is inherently built with security measures in place from the start. This ensures that security is a priority throughout the development process and that users can trust that their data and information will be protected. It also means that security features are enabled by default, reducing the risk of vulnerabilities or breaches. This approach helps to create a more robust and resilient system that is better equipped to withstand potential threats.

It applies as much to your network and systems as it does to software development and possibly more importantly to you, it is a legal requirement under the Data Protection Act 2018, or as it is becoming known, UK GDPR.

The first problem many people come up against is that they already have a network, probably connected to the cloud of some sort, very possibly for SMEs, MS365, but when the design was done, there wasn’t a full risk assessment undertaken which is a requirement to underpin that design. In other words what we in the cyber security industry refer to as Security Architecture Design (SAD), wasn’t a prominent consideration.

Not unusual and the common technologies were probably set up, firewalls and anti-virus, but not much else. And that is where a well thought out strategy comes into play.

What should I be considering in my Cyber Security Strategy

We’ve already said you are an SME, so do you need the sort of comprehensive cyber security strategy that we would see in a major corporate? No, but it should still cover off the major points and should continue to be reviewed alongside things like your Health and Safety policy and other industry standards that are required to be reviewed for you to stay in business, usually annually.

You need to be thinking about the key components needed to effectively protect an organisation’s digital assets and data. These components may include:

1. Risk assessment: Assessing potential cybersecurity risks and vulnerabilities to identify areas of weakness and prioritise areas for improvement.

2. Security policies and procedures: Establishing clear and enforceable policies and procedures for data protection, access control, incident response, and other security-related activities.

3. Employee training: Providing ongoing training and education to employees on cyber security best practices, such as password management, phishing awareness, and safe browsing habits.

4. Security tools and technologies: Implementing robust security tools and technologies, such as firewalls, intrusion detection systems, encryption software, security monitoring tools and data protection tools, and endpoint protection solutions.

5. Incident response plan: Developing a detailed incident response plan that outlines the steps to be taken in the event of a security breach or cyber-attack, including communication protocols, containment measures, and recovery strategies.

6. Regular audits and testing: Conducting regular security audits and penetration testing to assess the effectiveness of existing security measures and identify any vulnerabilities that need to be addressed.

7. Collaboration with external partners: Establishing a partnership with cyber security company that understands the issues that affect SMEs and who themselves can establish a solid working relationship with the IT provider that is providing and administering your network and IT resources, will enhance your protections, significantly improve your employee and managerial awareness of the issues, and provide you with the peace of mind you need, allowing you to concentrate on your core business.

Cyber Maturity

What do we mean by cyber maturity? It’s not just about the protections you may have in place, but more about how well your organisation understands the importance of it and its place in your overall business strategy. It is after all a business issue, not a technical issue and needs to be treated as such. Modern security solutions are increasingly complicated and challenging. These complexities change all the time and with the changes in working patterns and the introduction of AI now at the hands of the cyber criminals, they require a broad understanding of cyber security. Very few SMEs possess this level of expertise and can find themselves struggling to protect themselves and rectify security risks discovered within their business. In a climate of frequent, and potentially devastating, malicious activity organisations need targeted, rapid remediation and effective solutions. In doing this they will improve specific areas of their security systems, reduce their level of exposure and minimise potential losses, which can be very significant.

Many small and mid-size businesses struggle to combat the threat that cybercrime poses. A simple piece of malware or a social engineering event, can result in the loss of sensitive company and client data, disrupt business and waste staff time. Such incidents are commonly sensationalised by the media, causing client defection and damage to hard-earned reputations, resulting in significant loss of business.

I’ve described the risk management process before, and I know it can be a bit daunting, and many would fear it’s costs and complexity. That is why we have designed and taken into use the Cyber Maturity Assessment (CMA), specifically for SMEs which will enable them to go down the risk management road at a pace and price they can afford. The CMA is designed to obtain a view of where a client sits currently in terms of their Cyber Security posture. It is obtained from the results of interview with the staff, examination of current policies and procedures, including their effectiveness, security architecture and technical controls, and observations to gain an understanding of cyber security by management and staff. It is designed to provide a report which shows a client exactly where they sit in terms of Cyber Risk in a way that is demonstrable and east to understand. It gives a client a starting point from which H2 consultants will be able to scope any problems.

What Does a Cyber Maturity Assessment Give Me?

In brief, the CMA is designed to:

Understand and define the target state of the system i.e., where does the client want to be in terms of Cyber maturity – in defining the target state there must be a clear understanding of the business drivers, future business demands and business dependencies affecting the organisational area under examination.

Understand the current level of Cyber maturity – At this point the matter of cyber maturity will be a somewhat subjective view, obtained from the results of interviews with staff and initial observations by H2 consultants. This element is not intended to replace a detailed understanding, but to provide an initial view and start point, from which H2 consultants will be able to scope the problem and recommend any remediation required, in a phased way.

We measure both the starting point and the end point using the Carnegie Melon Cyber Maturity Model. I know other consultancies will use other models for this, but this is one that we have found to be effective, both for SMEs and in the corporate world. It looks like this:

I mentioned earlier that this is something used in the corporate world and whilst that’s true it is a matter of scale and need. Most corporates would have the requirement and budget to aim high, say at around CMMI4 (5 is rarely hit). For most SMEs that’s a step too far and as a rule of thumb, when we do this, we tend to find we’re starting at around 0.8 to 1.5 with the aim to get to CMMI 2 as soon as is feasible, with the end game at CMMI 3 which is affordable for most SMEs if a phased approach is taken.

At the end of this initial process and SME is rarely able to just jump in and accept the recommendations and get on with fixing them. It can be a complex issue requiring a hard look at their staff in terms of cyber awareness training, their policies and processes and their technical solutions, all aimed at prioritising the protections required for each asset in accordance with their vulnerabilities and threats.

A phased approach is almost always needed, often aligned with budgets. It can look a bit like this:

The first transformation project tends to be what we term the Quick Wins Phase ie what can we do relatively easily, quickly and therefore affordably, to give the client the most urgent fixes. It often, but not always, looks like this:

This has just been a very quick cantor through the CMA process, and we need to emphasise that each client has a different set of requirements, and we can often jump into the process at a different stage. Call us if you want to know more.

Cyber Security is a Business Issue

This is a subject I return to quite often and it’s all about how cyber security is viewed by many SMEs, and I’ll explore why that view appears to be paramount. I am pretty much of the view that the attitude I’m about to expand on, is as much the fault of the cyber security industry, as anything else.

We tend to flood potential clients with adverts and articles, mainly focused on technology. Many of this comes from sales, rather than from the seasoned cyber security experts, that you might wish it did.

Let me give you a couple of quotes. The first comes from a renowned Harvard scientist and cyber security specialist. He says, ‘If you think technology can solve your security problems, then you don’t understand the problems and you don’t understand the technology’.’ The second comes from Stephane Nappo, Vice President and Global Chief Information Security Officer for Groupe SEB, ‘It takes 20 years to build a reputation and a few minutes of cyber-incident to ruin it.’

Boil that down and they are saying that this is not an IT issue, it’s a business issue. That’s not discounting technology’s role but without integrating it with PEOPLE and PROCESS, we’re only curing half the ailment. When advising a company’s leaders, we must not only identify the threats but also gauge vulnerability to these threats and ascertain the risk to the business. Only then can we craft a solution that harmoniously unites People, Process, and Technology.

Perhaps because there is a considerable amount of what we call FUD, fear, uncertainty and doubt, doing the rounds constantly, it concentrates people on thinking about specifics, instead of looking at the bigger picture. Whilst there is no doubt that phishing, ransomware, and other scams have certainly concentrated the mind somewhat, and these attacks are most definitely not confined to the large enterprise businesses, but have been attacking, with a lot of success, the small to medium business market, this causes vendors to try and exploit the issues around that and push their technology solutions and of course, SMEs rarely, if ever, have the expertise to judge whether or not a particular product will actually give them the protection they need. We now must add into the mix AI and its capacity for increasing cyber-attacks at all levels, making the production of code, so much easier and making it available to those perhaps less skilled than heretofore.

As we travel around and visits clients or potential clients, it is common to find that they have the view that adequate security is provided by technology. They rely on their IT provider to give the guidance they need which tends to involve firewalls, anti-malware software and perhaps a backup regime. All well and dandy. Let’s just remind ourselves of the quote from Bruce Schneier:

‘If you think technology can solve your security problems, then you don’t understand the problems and you don’t understand the technology’.

So, what does he mean? As he’s not here to ask I suggest what he’s saying is that essentially the technology available can be an essential part of your protection but it has to be targeted in the right way, which not only means you have the right piece of kit doing the right thing, but that you are targeting your IT spend to support your business goals and give a maximum return on investment (ROI). It should also be married to good policies and processes that are enforceable and auditable and fully understood by your work force. To do this you have to understand exactly what your risks, vulnerabilities and threats are to ensure that your solution to those risks, vulnerabilities, and threats, is targeted for maximum effect and ROI and that the technology is supporting the policies and processes, all of which is underpinned with good security awareness training.

It’s also necessary to have some form of measuring the effectiveness of your solutions through a protective monitoring solution. Such solutions for SMEs have long been considered too expensive to even consider, even though it provides a set of cybersecurity practices and measures aimed at safeguarding an SMEs digital assets and sensitive information.

But first and foremost, you need to identify the risks that you face. How can you identify that risk and then mitigate it? Taking risks is a part of business. You assess risk every day when doing business. Do you want to do this deal? What happens if it goes not as expected? Do I want to take this person on? Etc etc etc. Whether you formally undertake a risk assessment or whether you assess that risk informally, you are working out what is appropriate to a level that is consistent with the risk that your organisation is prepared to take. Failure to do that will almost certainly be damaging to your business, perhaps fatally so.

Within SMEs the difference between assessing day to day business risk and assessing risk to information assets, is one of understanding. What is an information asset? Note the word ‘information’ rather than IT. It is the information contained within the IT system that is the important asset, not the piece of hardware it is sitting on. You understand your business risk, after all it is your business, but do you understand information risk? Do you have a clear idea of what information assets you have and where they are? Before you answer that think it through. Do you really know where all the data is? OK, you know that you have a server or servers and that somewhere in those servers there is a bunch of data which runs your business. How much of that data has been saved onto staff workstations when they needed it to carry out some work? How much has been copied off somewhere else for what was probably a very good reason at one point? How well is your firewall functioning? Can malware work its way onto the network because the firewall does not have Universal Threat Management installed and can therefore be probing the servers and workstations. I could go on.

The first thing to understand is that these risks are owned by the board, and if you don’t have a formal board, then the management team. That needs to be understood fully by those at the top. That team needs to understand what level of risk is acceptable and agree what risks you are prepared to tolerate to achieve your business aims. You need to ensure that supporting policies are produced, implemented, understood by employees, and regularly reviewed and updated. At H2 we tend to produce an information security and data protection handbook which can run into many pages. Producing these policies is not as easy as it sounds.

You may also wish to look at some recognised standards by which you can regulate your risk management. One such is the international standard for information security, ISO 27000 series but perhaps the most appropriate for SMEs is the Cyber Essentials Scheme which will help you demonstrate an appropriate level of information security and risk management within your company.

Once you have a risk management framework in place, owned from the top, then you can identify your information assets and assess the risk to your business should those assets be compromised in some way. Then and only then can you adequately assess what processes and technologies you need to mitigate the risks identified for each asset thus targeting your spend for maximum effectiveness.

Sadly, that’s not the end. User education is probably the most important element of all for an SME. Ensuring that your staff are aware of the policies and why they exist. Protect yourself against scams which sadly, form the biggest danger to SMEs rather than hacks. Scams can be very low tech or high tech using malware, but however they come in, your staff need to be aware of them.

Scams v Hacks

We hear a lot about the consequences of cyber-attacks and data breaches but not a lot about the specific threats against SMEs, rather than the generic threats against all businesses. In general businesses are more likely to be targeted by scammers (social engineering attacks) than by purely technical attacks. But why? Attacks against individual SMEs are not going to bring in a lot of profit for the criminal, so they often go after multiple targets all at once. How they do that is to craft an attack which can be automated and directed at many SMEs all at once. The easiest way to do that is via a social engineering attack. Let’s take a look at what we mean by that.

Scams and social engineering attacks rely heavily on human error. Not only do SMEs have weaker defences than their corporate cousins, but they spend little, if anything, on cyber awareness training. The attack that brought down Knights of Old, reducing a once thriving business to bankruptcy in a frighteningly short time, was the result of a weak password being cracked. That suggests that OK, a stronger password protocol and the use of MFA would have been of great benefit but so would educating the users about social engineering and how they can protect the company and their jobs.

Typically, we see:

Phishing emails that trick employees into giving credentials or downloading malware.
Business email compromise (BEC) — attackers impersonate executives to request bank transfers or the immediate payment of an invoice.
Fake invoices or supplier fraud.

It’s done this way simply because it’s easier and cheaper to execute than a technical attack. It’s scalable with scammers sending thousands of phishing emails, and it often bypasses technical defences by exploiting people directly.

In addition to the traditional attacks, we are now facing AI generated attacks, enabling criminals to design scams that are even more scalable and to be produced more quickly. Some examples include:

Deepfake CEO Fraud (AI-Generated Voice or Video)

A finance employee receives a video call from someone who appears to be the CEO instructing them to urgently transfer funds to a supplier. The video and voice are AI-generated deepfakes using real footage and voice samples taken from public online sources. This has happened in the UK causing a UK based firm to lose over £20m in early 2025. Obviously not an SME but the attack was not difficult to generate.

Another AI attack was an upscale of the Business Email Compromise:

Criminals use AI to monitor and mimic email communication styles. They craft perfectly worded emails from a company executive asking the accounting team to update supplier bank details or pay fake invoices. What is new in 2025 is that AI now personalises these scams based on internal speech patterns and tone scraped from Slack or Teams (when credentials are compromised and that list is not exhaustive – other online messaging systems are available).

One scam that we are now seeing more of is the fake job applicant scam targeting HR departments and IT onboarding teams. Scammers apply for remote jobs using fake CVs and AI-generated video interviews. Once hired, they gain access to internal systems and exfiltrate data or install malware. They’re playing the long game here, but it can really pay off.

There are lots of examples and I’ll just put in a couple more:

How many of you use Software as a Service (SaaS) and pay a subscription? In this case a fake renewal notice is sent for services like Microsoft 365, Zoom, or Slack. The email contains a link to a spoofed portal, which steals company admin credentials when they try to “log in.” A new twist in 2025 is that the phishing emails are personalised with real invoice numbers and recent usage data scraped from prior breaches.

Most of you are probably on LinkedIn, even if you are not particularly active on there. We are now seeing more of the LinkedIn Clone Attack. What happens here is that the scammers clone the LinkedIn profile of a known business leader and use it to reach out to employees or partners, proposing urgent collaborations or investment opportunities that include malicious links. In a more advanced tactic, they use AI-generated responses in real-time chats that make these accounts seem very real.

So, in conclusion, whilst we cannot rule out the more technical attack on an SME, we can say that the most likely attack will come via some sort of scam, often nowadays using AI. The defences need to be in depth and will include some technical defences but often the best defence against social engineering is cyber awareness training and this is generally ignored by SMEs.

Do CISOs have a role in the Small to Medium Enterprise?

A Chief Information Security Officer or CISO, is a post you almost never find in an SME, even those at the top end of that sector. This has contributed to the growth of what is known as fractional appointments i.e. appointments that are not full time with the incumbents often taking roles in more than one organisation, thus the term Fractional.

Anyone taking any role in an SME management team will need to be pragmatic, practical and bring cost effectiveness to their discipline. The CISO role is no different and is all about managing risk, enabling the business and ensuring trust in a very cost sensitive environment.

The CISO can play a crucial role in an SME by ensuring that the organisation’s information and data assets are secure. While the CISO role in a large corporation may be more siloed or focused on strategy, in an SME the CISO often wears multiple hats, balancing strategy, operations, and hands-on technical work.

Challenges Unique to SMEs

I’ve often talked about the challenges that SMEs face, focusing as I do on cyber security. Let’s just have a quick recap looking at where the CISO fits in with these unique challenges.

Limited budget and staff: This is the main reason why SMEs will not employ a full time CISO, they simply can’t afford it. The other being that an SME probably doesn’t require a full-time resource anyway. Because of this lack of resource the CISO may also act as a hands-on security engineer or IT lead, perhaps liaising with a contracted IT outsourcer.
Lack of security culture: Many SMEs don’t prioritise security until after a breach. The CISO will be able to raise awareness and provide advice and guidance before the fact.
Rapid growth and change: Scaling securely is a key challenge as SMEs expand and there are often gaps left because of overlooking the need to embed security at the design stage. The CISO can plug that gap.

Let’s take a look at the potential elements of a job description for the role of a CISO, or a Fractional CISO, in an SME. Of course, these may not fit everyone and it’s more of a menu for SMEs to choose from:

Developing and Leading the Cybersecurity Strategy
Define the overall information security roadmap aligned with the SME’s business goals.
Balance security with business agility, in other words making sure security does not get in the way of business and keeping in mind budget constraints typical in SMEs.
Ensure the strategy addresses risk management, compliance, and data protection.

Risk Management and Assessment
Identify and assess cyber risks relevant to the SME (e.g., phishing, ransomware, insider threats).
Conduct regular vulnerability assessments and penetration tests.
Prioritise risks based on business impact and likelihood.

Policy and Compliance Management
Develop and enforce security policies, standards, and procedures.
Ensure compliance with relevant regulations (e.g., GDPR, PCI-DSS etc depending on industry).
Prepare for audits and provide documentation to demonstrate compliance.

Security Awareness and Training
Conduct regular security awareness training for employees.
Create a culture of security by promoting best practices (e.g., strong passwords, phishing awareness).

Incident Response and Business Continuity
Develop and maintain an incident response plan.
Lead the response to security breaches and minimise damage.
Ensure business continuity and disaster recovery plans are in place and tested.

Technology Oversight and Vendor Management
Evaluate and implement cybersecurity tools (e.g., firewalls, endpoint protection etc).
Manage relationships with third-party vendors, especially cloud providers and MSSPs.
Ensure that vendors comply with the SME’s security requirements.
Ensure the SME itself is not in conflict with any security requirements of larger organisations if it is in that organisations supply chain.

Board and Executive Communication
Translate technical risks into business language for senior management.
Report regularly on security posture, incidents, and needs.
Advocate for security budget and resources in line with organisational risk appetite.

I hope that gives a feel as to why an SME might want to consider a Fractional CISO or Board Advisor. Cyber-attacks are becoming more sophisticated, faster and harder to repel. It is no longer just the corporates who are in the firing line. Modern, often AI driven attacks have put everyone in the sights of the modern cyber-criminal and even from those criminal organisations that are nation state funded. It’s never been more crucial to have professional advice and guidance on tap.

Cyber Resilience – What Does It Entail?

The Cyber Security and Resilience Bill

Following the fallout last year, from the CloudStrike sensor failure that led to significant outages worldwide, we wrote a piece questioning whether we are truly addressing Cyber challenges. Subsequently, the UK introduced The Cyber Security and Resilience Bill, which was debated in Parliament in 2025. This legislation seeks to enhance the UK’s cyber defences and bolster resilience across essential services, infrastructure, and digital offerings. It will revise current cyber security regulations, including the NIS Regulations, and broaden the scope of protected digital services and supply chains.

The primary goal of this bill is to safeguard the UK’s digital economy, positioning it as one of the most secure in the world while protecting services, supply chains, and citizens. Additionally, it aims to enhance our cyber resilience and stimulate growth and prosperity. With an expanded scope, it encompasses a wider array of essential digital services beyond those currently covered by the NIS regulations and builds upon them. The bill includes mandatory reporting requirements and emphasises the UK’s Critical National Infrastructure (CNI).

Ministerial Policy Statement

Relationship with EU Regulations

Although the UK’s Cyber Security and Resilience Bill is tailored for the UK, it draws inspiration from the EU’s Cyber Resilience Act (CRA) and the NIS2 Directive. The CRA emphasises cybersecurity for products with digital elements, whereas the UK’s legislation focuses on fostering overall resilience within its digital ecosystem. Furthermore, it aims to align with principles found in the NIS2 Directive adopted by the EU in 2024.

How will SMEs navigate this?

In the cybersecurity sector, there has long been a divide between product vendors and those of us focused on services. After three decades in this industry, I’ve repeatedly observed that product sales often prevail. Why? Because selling services is more challenging with a longer sales cycle compared to quicker product sales. People prefer to see a quick if not immediate return, on their investment; they like tangible products doing their job even if they don’t fully grasp how they function or whether they’re suited for their needs.

Risk Management

A risk managed approach remains vital. This principle hasn’t changed over my 30 years in the field. However, this bill makes it even more critical due to potential penalties for non-compliance. The focus should be on People, Process, and then Technology. I often reference Bruce Schneier, a Harvard scientist and thought leader in cybersecurity. He states, “If you think technology can solve your security problems, then you don’t understand the problems and you don’t understand the technology.” Essentially, understanding your risks begins with identifying your cyber assets, not just hardware or software but your data and your ability to maintain system access for staff and customers when needed.

Once you recognise your assets, you must identify potential threats to them and assess how vulnerable you are to those threats. Threats combined with vulnerabilities equal risk, the risk to your business if things go awry.

Having completed this assessment you can assign a risk score to each asset aiming to manage that risk down to an acceptable level, known as risk appetite. This will vary from business to business or even asset to asset; for instance, you wouldn’t assign the same risk level to a revenue-generating system as you would to an admin-only system lacking personal data.

This may sound daunting and costly; hence many businesses avoid it or only partially implement it. However, without a comprehensive assessment, it’s challenging to ensure that you are allocating your limited budget toward appropriate protections in key areas. You need to determine potential damage from failures and explore ways to mitigate that damage. While consulting a lawyer after a crisis is one option, wouldn’t it be wiser to prevent or reduce issues before they escalate?

Working Practices