Prioritising cyber threats

Small and mid‑sized businesses (SMBs) face a barrage of cyber threats every day. With limited budgets and staff, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed by the sheer number of potential vulnerabilities. Our mission is to help you cut through the noise—turn daily threats into clear priorities, step‑by‑step actions and budgets you can actually keep. That starts by focusing on the areas that provide the greatest return on investment.

Once you’ve laid the groundwork—identified your assets and put protective controls in place—it’s time to prioritise Detect, Respond and Recover. These functions of the NIST Cybersecurity Framework help you spot intrusions early, minimise damage and get back on your feet quickly. Here’s how to apply them in your organisation.

Detect: catch issues before they cascade

The sooner you know something’s wrong, the easier and cheaper it is to fix. NIST recommends monitoring your computers for unauthorised access, devices and software. Start by enabling logging on network devices and using built‑in alerts from your cloud providers. Regularly review these logs for unusual activities and set up notifications for suspicious behaviour. Even simple tools—like email alerts when an administrator account is created—can help you intervene before an attacker causes lasting damage.

Respond: have a playbook

When an incident occurs, chaos is the enemy. NIST advises having a response plan for notifying affected individuals, keeping business operations running and reporting incidents to law enforcement. Write down who you’ll contact—customers, employees and vendors—and which systems you’ll prioritise for restoration. Practice your response through table‑top exercises so everyone knows their role. Don’t forget to update your plan after each drill or real incident; lessons learned are invaluable.

Recover: bounce back stronger

Recovery isn’t just about restoring backups; it’s about demonstrating resilience. After a cyber attack, NIST suggests repairing and restoring affected systems and keeping customers and employees informed of your response and recovery activities. This transparency builds trust and helps reassure stakeholders that you are in control. Incorporate periodic drills to verify your backups can be restored quickly and consider how you’ll continue delivering services if a system is offline. Treat recovery as part of your business continuity planning, not an afterthought.

Making it manageable

Focusing on Detect, Respond and Recover allows you to prioritise investments that truly matter. You don’t need expensive monitoring software to start; take advantage of the tools you already have and build a simple notification process. Similarly, a response plan can be as straightforward as a contact list and a checklist of tasks. Over time, refine your processes and add automation—but don’t let perfect be the enemy of good. By concentrating on these three functions, SMBs can dramatically reduce risk, meet obligations and maintain momentum toward their growth goals.