Reduce Risk & Exposure

allanpage
Jan 2
2 min read

Practical IT Steps Every Business Should Take This Year

Cyber risk isn’t just about hackers anymore.

For most small and mid-sized businesses across Leicestershire, Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire, risk comes from everyday things:

Old systems that haven’t been updated
Staff using weak passwords
Cloud tools being set up “quickly” but never reviewed
No clear plan if something goes wrong

We see it regularly when new businesses come to us. Nothing dramatic has happened yet, but the warning signs are there.

And the challenge is this: Most cyber incidents don’t start with a big attack. They start with small gaps that build up over time.

Where risk really comes from

In our experience supporting East Midlands businesses, the biggest areas of exposure tend to be:

Unpatched devices and servers
Staff accounts with too much access
Backups that exist but haven’t been tested
No clear responsibility for cyber security decisions

The UK Government’s Cyber Security Breaches Survey consistently shows that human error remains one of the leading causes of cyber incidents, not sophisticated hacking.

That’s why reducing risk isn’t about fear. It’s about control and visibility.

A practical starting point

Reducing exposure doesn’t mean ripping everything out and starting again.

It starts with asking simple questions:

Do we know what devices and systems we actually have?
Who has access to what, and why?
If we were hit tomorrow, could we recover quickly?

“Most businesses we work with don’t have a lack of technology. They have a lack of clarity around risk.” Allan Page, Managing Director, Somerbys IT