Improving security literacy in partnership with Onwardly
We’re often sharing tips for keeping your business safe - and for good reason. No matter the size of your business, you can’t be complacent about cyber security. In fact, 46% of all cyber breaches impact businesses with fewer than 1000 employees and 82% of ransomware attacks in 2021 were against companies with fewer than 1,000 employees.
Just about every week we see new threats or phishing attempts emerge, with increasing sophistication. For a small business, the impact of a cyber attack can result in both a financial, and a reputational, hit that is hard to recover from.
But this isn’t an article just to alarm you
Working alongside our small business clients, we recognise that having the in-house resource and knowledge to create and maintain an IT security plan isn’t always realistic. (If you don’t, you’re not alone; 51% of small businesses have no cyber security measures in place, at all.)
And while part of our role (if you’re on a support plan with us) is to help guide you with your security decisions, the onus is on you as a business to put proactive measures in place and have the means to react quickly to any possible threats. The idea of that can be daunting if you have little to no knowledge of what’s really involved in keeping your systems safe.
Joining forces to strengthen cyber resilience
We’ve recently partnered with Onwardly, an Aotearoa-founded platform that is helping to democratise security and privacy, making it more accessible, and affordable, for SMEs to proactively defend their business. Essentially, it’s designed to make it easier for even non-tech folk to feel confidence and peace of mind around their cyber resilience.
Onwardly recognised that many SMEs were vulnerable to cyber attacks, and created a solution that makes security goals and actions more visible. Onwardly enables everyone, not just those with unlimited resourcing, to:
Conduct your own cyber security risk assessments
Establish an implementation plan and automate tasks
Set achievable targets, receive progress reports and improve your security resilience
Fighting the good fight, together
For us, a partnership with Onwardly supports our goal of improving the security literacy of our customers. We want more organisations to recognise that cyber security is the responsibility of everyone - not just IT. In fact, 95% of cyber security breaches are attributed to human error. That means understanding security isn’t just about the tools you put in place, but also about awareness, education and implementing good practices to keep business and customer data safe.
We can’t be everywhere all at once for our customers, but we see Onwardly as a great way to empower more businesses with a stronger line of defence that can scale as their business does.
Brightly Principal Consultant, Mike, recently joined Onwardly founder, Phil, on the Upwards podcast, chatting about how your start-up or non-profit organisation can be secure, profitable and make a positive impact.
If you’re conscious that your business could be doing more to stay secure, but you’re not sure where to start, get in touch and we can tell you more about our strategy and support options.