How UK businesses can stay secure and compliant in an increasingly digital world

Last year, 43% of UK businesses reported experiencing a cybersecurity breach or attack. That more than anything, is proof that cybersecurity is no longer a nice-to-have – it’s an essential for organisations in the UK.  

Cyberattacks themselves are becoming more advanced too, with AI-powered phishing, ransomware, and MiTM (“Man in the Middle”) attacks on the rise. Keeping pace with these more sophisticated threats is a real challenge (especially for smaller businesses), but it’s the only way to protect your business and prevent costly downtime and data breaches. 

We have seen, firsthand, how difficult it can be for businesses to grow while staying secure, meeting compliance requirements, and maintaining customer trust.  

That’s why we offer professional and managed services that minimise the risk of an attack and allow UK businesses to operate without fear. In this article, we’ll highlight the services we offer to keep your business secure and compliant.  

How Phoenix 47 can help your business achieve Cyber Essentials Certification 

Starting with the basics, let’s talk about Cyber Essentials. This UK-backed certification scheme has been helping businesses stay safe against cybercrime for over a decade.  

The certification itself requires businesses to demonstrate they have sufficient firewalls, access control, malware protection, and device & network configurations.  

There is also a compliance aspect to Cyber Essentials certification. Government contracts for projects that involve sensitive or personal data already require certification, and now many private sector organisations (and supply chains) require it too.  

But achieving certification isn’t always straightforward – in fact, it’s often complex and time-consuming. We can simplify the process for you and ensure your business meets requirements for certification by: 

• Providing guidance on certification requirements 

• Conducting readiness assessments to identify gaps 

• Consulting with you on security control implementation 

• Conducting pre-certification audits  

• Monitoring your business to ensure you’re audit-ready, every day  

Providing 24/7 protection with advanced monitoring and threat detection 

By now it’s a well-known fact that cybercriminals often strike outside of working hours. Which means your business is at its most vulnerable when internal teams are offline.  

We can cover these gaps by providing round-the-clock monitoring and threat detection. In other words, we’ll notice threats and respond to them in real-time – 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.  

Our threat monitoring tools can be tailored to your specific needs and are integrated seamlessly with your existing systems. Plus, we provide in-depth analytics so you can make informed decisions that keep your business one step ahead of hackers.  

Best of all, it’s far more affordable than maintaining an in-house team of specialists (and no less secure!)  

Backup and recovery that ensures your business can operate – no matter what 

While you can take steps to minimise the risk of a cyberattack, nothing can eliminate that risk entirely.  

Which is why it’s vital to have a backup and recovery plan in place. In the event the worst should happen, like a cyberattack, accidental deletion, or technology failure, your backup and recovery (BDR) strategy will ensure your business can continue to operate.  

But not all backup and recovery strategies are created equally. There are different recovery methods (like file-level, system-level, and “bare metal”), backup frequencies, and even your server type to consider. Each have their own strengths and weaknesses and are suitable for different kinds of organisations.  

We’ll work with your organization to develop and implement a tailored plan that protects your data and systems. That includes implementing immutable storage, establishing a BDR plan, and conducting regular testing and validation.  

Implementing a Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) policy 

It has become increasingly clear that passwords alone aren’t enough to protect businesses from cybercriminals. The cyberattack on KPN by hacker group “Akira” alone proves that; as one single password breach caused the 158-year-old transportation company to shut down completely. 

Attacks like this have led to an almost mandatory implementation of MFA for businesses, as it adds extra layers of verification (like biometrics or device-based authentication). These extra layers make it much harder for hackers to compromise your data or systems, even if they have a password.  

We can evaluate your current setup and implement a tailored MFA solution that fortifies your business and integrates with your third-party applications. We’ll also monitor and manage your MFA configurations to make sure they’re up to standard on an ongoing basis.  

Helping you develop a culture around cybersecurity, so your human firewall stands strong 

Secure businesses know that cybersecurity isn’t a one-off project – it’s a mindset. And it’s a mindset that your employees need to embody, as they are your first line of defence against cybercrime.  

But putting the burden entirely on employees can risk burnout and divert their attention from strategic tasks (they’re experts in their field after all, not in cybersecurity).  

We specialise in helping UK businesses develop a culture around cybersecurity that ensures teams stay vigilant, while prioritising business-critical work.  

We’ll help you build scalable frameworks and automate security processes to reduce manual effort. In addition, we’ll work with you to optimise your cybersecurity operations and create incident response playbooks – ensuring your teams can act quickly and confidently when threats arise. 

Galvanising every link in your supply chain 

Supply chains have become increasingly interconnected and globalised in the past decade. While there are benefits to this, there are also cybersecurity risks. 

Nowadays, your business is only as secure as your weakest supplier, which is why we take supply chain so seriously. 

We can help you audit your supply chain, establish cybersecurity standards for your vendors that balance security with functionality, and perform compliance audits to ensure standards are met.  

If you’d like to earn a Cyber Essentials certification, supercharge your cybersecurity, or ensure compliance – we can help. Message us at contactus@phoenix47.co.uk to request more information.