What's included
- IT security assessments
- Firewall and endpoint security recommendations
- DNS filtering and content protection guidance
- Device management and policy advice
- Access control and security hardening recommendations
- Backup and disaster-recovery planning
Security for businesses without a security team
Small businesses rarely get into trouble because of something exotic. More often it's an ordinary gap: a former employee whose account still works, a shared password everyone knows, a computer that hasn't been updated, a router still on its default settings, or backups that nobody has checked. Each one is easy to fix once you know about it. The hard part is knowing.
A security assessment finds those gaps and puts them in order. You get a clear picture of where you're exposed, how much each issue matters, and what to do about it — explained without jargon or scare tactics.
What the assessment looks at
- Accounts and access: who has access to what, how admin accounts are handled, and whether access is removed when people leave.
- Devices: how computers and phones are managed, kept up to date, and protected.
- Network edge: your firewall and router configuration and what's exposed to the internet.
- Filtering: whether DNS filtering and content protection would reduce risk from malicious sites.
- Backup and recovery: what's backed up, where, and whether you could actually restore it after a failure or ransomware.
- Policies: the simple written rules — passwords, devices, access — that keep good habits in place.
How it works
- Initial consultation. We talk about your business, the data you hold, and anything that's prompted the conversation.
- Assessment. I review your environment against sound practice, focusing on the areas above.
- Findings, by priority. Each gap is explained in plain language with how much it matters, so the urgent items stand out from the nice-to-haves.
- Hardening and backup plan. A sequenced plan you, your team, or your IT provider can work through — starting with what can't wait.
A security review doesn't need to be a one-time event. Many businesses revisit it as part of ongoing IT advisory, so the plan stays current as staff, devices, and systems change.
Frequently asked questions
We're small. Do we really need a security assessment?
If your business stores client or operational data, yes. Small businesses without internal IT staff are often the most exposed, because nobody has had the time to look. The assessment is sized to your environment.
We just had a scare. Where should we start?
Start with an initial consultation and tell me what happened. The assessment can focus first on the areas involved, and the findings are ordered so the most urgent fixes come first.
Do you fix the security issues you find?
The service is the assessment and the plan. The fixes are carried out by you, your staff, or any IT provider you choose, working from the plan, and I can stay involved in an advisory role while they do.