How small and medium businesses build cyber security resilience

Who is this event for?

This is a free, educational event to help you and your management team resist cyber incidents intended to knock you off balance.

Register to find out how the best SMBs get ready in advance to defend themselves, their clients and their reputations.

We have three expert speakers to take you through:

· In a serious attack, what should management focus on whilst the techies do their thing?

· Why it’s valuable to have insurance in your corner during the fight.

· Spending wisely on the most relevant technical measures.

· How to give yourself the best chance of losing less data, losing less money, wasting less time and staying in business.

What will you get?

Decision makers who attend qualify for a free Cyber Security Risk Assessment arranged at your convenience with The Final Step.

A senior consultant will go through a set of questions, expertly explained in non-technical terms. This will produce an executive report that is a personalised heat map of your risks.

We'll guide you through an easy-to-digest report, identify your biggest risks and present options to mitigate them. You will have the information you need to make informed decisions.

Why should you attend?

Cyber security competence builds trust and enhances reputations

SMBs are increasingly under the microscope with due diligence questions relating to cyber security. You want to have good answers to these questions to build relationships, secure business and qualify for insurance.

When you have a security incident, being able to demonstrate that your actions are congruent with your good intentions builds trust. As the saying goes… Trust arrives on foot, but departs on horseback.

Register now if you want to discover:

· The shortest, fastest, most relevant route to data security.

· How you gain control of your own data security.

· How you can prove the quality of work you do in this area.

What will you learn from our expert speakers?

What it takes to recover your business after an incident

Cyber attacks cause confusion. Criminals want to cause chaos and leave you with limited options so that paying a ransom makes sense. Understanding, planning and practising for the worst helps you take back some control.

Andre Lynch is a seasoned Cyber Security Engineer at ConnectWise. He will explain what happens to a business under attack. Understanding what it’s like lets you make decisions on how to build your resilience.

Here are some of the considerations he’ll cover:

· Recovering your data so you can carry on working.

· Informing clients and stakeholders who may be affected.

· Contacting and liaising with the police.

· Negotiating with criminals.

· Reporting to the Information Commissioner’s Office.

· Establishing the root cause and mitigating those risks.

How insurance can relieve the stress of recovery from an incident

Are you comfortable, on your own, dealing with the cyber police, conducting forensics in order to report to the ICO and negotiating a bitcoin ransom over a bank holiday weekend? Most of us would like one number to call to deal with all of that.

Laura Wilkinson is a seasoned professional in the insurance industry, currently serving as the Client and Schemes Manager at Clear Insurance Management Ltd.

With over 15 years of experience, Laura is well placed to empower your businesses to understand the critical importance of cyber resilience and cyber insurance.

Laura’s insightful and engaging approach has helped many make well-informed decisions. She will share her guidance with attendees about these key issues:

· The skilled people insurers provide who are essential to your recovery.

· What research can teach you about differentiating between insurance policies.

· The technical protections insurers consider essential and extra steps that earn you credit.

· How to get an accurate quote.

Well-informed business decisions on cyber security build trust

In 2023 there were 3,231 vendors of technical cyber security products. Whilst that gives you a lot of choice, it’s also overwhelming. It would be nice if you could buy one product or service and consider cyber security “done” and tick it off your list.

But that is not the reality. Cyber security is like boxing. You have to keep your guard up and you have to keep moving, and even then you still might get floored.

Simon Heath will take you through The Final Step’s tried and tested process for how leaders of SMBs adopt a security first mindset and layer their security effectively whilst budgeting carefully.

· Don’t spend any money until you have done a risk assessment.

· Zero-in on the biggest risks your business has.

· Target the lowest cost, highest impact way to mitigate those risks.

· Regularly review and continuously improve your cyber security.

Make contacts who can help your business

Grow your cyber security capabilities and meet those who can be a helping hand when your business might need it most.

The three presentations will be 45 minutes and there will be a brief, open Question and Answer session. There is then an opportunity for networking and to get answers to any questions that keep you up at night whilst enjoying an award-winning beer from Two Tribes, our local award-winning brewery.

Place: British Medical Association, Tavistock House, Tavistock Square, WC1H 9JP

Date: Thursday 25th April

Timings:

2.45pm - Registration

3pm – 4pm - Expert presentation and panel Q&A

4pm – 5pm - Ask further questions over a Two Tribes brew or two.

Email us if you would like to come but can’t make it.

The size of the cyber risk problem for SMBs

Hiscox, the cyber insurers, ran a “honeypot test”. They setup servers typically used by small and medium-sized businesses and monitored them to see how often they were attacked by cyber criminals.

On average, there were 23,000 attacks every day. The peak was 61,000 attacks in a day.

“SMBs are disproportionately affected by cyber attacks.”

Robert Hannigan, former Director of GCHQ

Host or Publisher The Final Step (www.thefinalstep.co.uk)