Cybersecurity
Protecting your users, devices, email and data from evolving threats.
3 articles
IT & Cybersecurity Knowledge Centre
Practical guidance on managed IT, cybersecurity, Microsoft 365, backup and business continuity — written for business owners, not for IT specialists.
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6 articles
5 Signs Your Business Needs Managed IT Services
Most businesses do not decide to outsource IT. They reach a point where the current arrangement stops working. Here is how to recognize it early.
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Small Business Cybersecurity Basics
You do not need an enterprise security budget. You do need a small number of controls, configured properly and kept working. Here is the baseline.
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Why MFA Matters for Your Business
Multi-factor authentication is the highest-value security control available to most small businesses, and one of the least expensive. Here is why, and how to roll it out without a revolt.
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How to Protect Your Business from Ransomware
Ransomware is not a single event. It is the visible end of an intrusion that usually began weeks earlier. That changes where the defenses belong.
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Why Your Business Needs Tested Backups
A backup job reporting success tells you data was written. It does not tell you the business could recover. Those are different claims.
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Microsoft 365 Security Best Practices
Microsoft 365 includes strong security capability. Very little of it is switched on by default. Here is what to review in the environment you already pay for.
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Where to Start
Three Questions, and What to Read First
Most people arrive here holding one of these. Start where you are rather than at the top.
“Are we exposed?”
Begin with the security basics and multi-factor authentication. Between them they cover the controls that stop the largest share of what actually happens to small businesses, and neither needs a budget to start.
“Could we recover?”
Read the piece on tested backups, then the one on ransomware. The first is about whether your safety net works; the second is about the event that finds out for you.
“Is our IT arrangement working?”
Start with the signs a business has outgrown its current setup. It is the least technical piece here and the one most often read by someone who already suspects the answer.
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Microsoft 365
Getting more security and more value out of the environment you already pay for.
1 articleBackup & Disaster Recovery
Making sure your data is protected, monitored and genuinely recoverable.
1 articleIT Management
How technology gets managed day to day, and what good looks like.
1 article
How We Write
Guidance You Can Act On Without Hiring Anyone
What these are
- Written by the people who do the work, about problems we have had to solve
- Aimed at whoever makes the decision, not whoever implements it
- Specific enough to act on, including without us
- Updated when what they describe changes
What these are not
- Syndicated articles bought in to fill a content calendar
- Product pages with a headline attached
- Legal, regulatory or compliance advice
- A substitute for someone being responsible for the outcome
An article can tell you what good looks like. It cannot tell you what is true of your environment, and we will not write as though it can.
FAQ
About This Knowledge Centre
Who writes these articles?
We do. Each piece is written by the people who do the work, about problems we have actually had to solve, and nothing here is syndicated filler bought from a marketing library.
That is also why there are six of them and not sixty. We would rather publish something worth the read than fill a content calendar.
Do I need to be technical to read them?
No. They are written for the person who has to make the decision and pay for it, not for the person who will implement it. Where a technical term is unavoidable we explain it once rather than assume it.
Is this advice I can act on myself?
Much of it, yes, and deliberately so. Turning on multi-factor authentication, testing whether a backup restores, and reviewing who still has access after someone leaves are all things a business can do without hiring anyone.
What we will not pretend is that reading an article is the same as having someone responsible for the outcome. The articles tell you what good looks like; they cannot tell you what is true of your environment.
How current is this content?
Threats and products change, and guidance that was right when written can age. Where an article describes something that has materially changed, we update the article rather than leave it and publish a second one contradicting the first.
Can I share or quote these?
Yes — quote them, link to them, send them to a colleague or to your current provider. What the site terms ask is that you do not republish them wholesale as if they were someone else’s.
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