The online world is creating a plethora of opportunities, and smarter ways of working for small and medium-sized companies in the UK. However, there is a great deal of risk involved without the relevant IT security measures in place.

London-based totality services is helping businesses across many vertical sectors with the threat of cyber crime. The company was founded in 2008 and provides SMBs with an award-winning end-to-end IT service, which includes 24/7 IT Support in London, IT Security and IT Services – such as data migrations or mailbox migrations.

The business is now supporting 100+ clients and has 18 London-based staff members. This year it also won the coveted Feefo Gold Trusted Service Award, based on independently verified client reviews.

Serious about cyber security

The company’s co-founders, Luis Navarro and Pedro Martins take cyber security extremely seriously and it’s high on the agenda whenever they discuss cloud solutions with clients and prospective clients alike.

“Providing the right level of security for our customers is absolutely critical, especially as cyber criminals have switched their focus from targeting blue-chip companies to SMBs,” says Navarro.

“A few years ago, their top priority was hacking big companies with large bank balances, but now their thinking has evolved. Today, most hackers target smaller businesses, where there’s generally very little security awareness training provided to SMB staff members, paired with the businesses themselves implementing little or inadequate security measures.”

“We still hear some business owners saying they’re ‘too small’ or even ‘too cool’ to require IT security. Unfortunately, hackers do not discriminate – every business with data or IP is at risk without the relevant security solutions in place. Even one-man band operations.”

Data protection and GDPR

“GDPR was a key driver in increasing IT security amongst SMBs. We saw a huge increase in the number of businesses implementing IT security solutions to safeguard their data,” Navarro continues.

“This is important from a compliance and legal point of view, but more so it created necessary awareness amongst smaller businesses on how some common platforms are at risk without the correct set-up and additional security solutions in place.”

As Martins adds, “The issue for any business whose data is breached is that by that point it is too late. They should have rolled-out adequate IT security solutions and processes in advance of the incident, but by the time it has happened they will have incurred costs and seen their reputation damaged.”

“The good news is that 99% of cybercrime can be prevented by investing in basic, yet robust, IT security solutions. It’s crucial that all companies do so regardless of their staff numbers or revenue.”

“We ensure our clients are protected from an IT perspective, through regular IT security audits and the roll-out of relevant security solutions. However, businesses also need to open up to security education and embrace the value of having security in place beforehand. We help clients with the education piece as well as the solution deployment,” Martins concludes.

The team at totality services offer a free of charge IT consultation for London-based businesses. If you’d like to take advantage of this offer, please get in touch by calling 020 3744 3105 or visit their website.