Enterprise Level Cyber Security for Small Business

Blackall Financial is a bespoke Pension and Wealth Management brokerage based in Malahide Co. Dublin. The brokerage specialises in advice for professional clients. His client base consists mostly of doctors, medical consultants, business owners and self- employed professionals. Blackall Financial is owned and run by Ciaran Blackall QFA.RPA.SIA. Ciaran has broad based experience of the financial services industry, having held various roles in insurance companies, accountancy firms, and stock-brokerages over the last 30 years, and is currently the President of Brokers Ireland. Ciaran brings this experience to bear when advising his clients today. “The personal touch means everything to my clients. I am in constant contact with them and they rely on my advice for their current and future financial wellbeing”.

The Challenge

Ciaran jokingly refers to himself as a Luddite when it comes to IT. However, over time and by taking advice, he has managed to create a solid IT stack including regular cloud back-ups of his data, Cloud office functionality through M365, SaaS ERP and IT security for anti-virus and malware protection.
However, since the HSE attack and a recent attack on an acquaintance, Ciaran wondered if he was doing enough when it came to cyber security. “A local accountancy firm was hit with ransomware and decided to pay up – that cost them €30k”. Now more than ever, I think the risk of cyber security is at an all-time high and when it hits someone you know, it makes the threat even more real. Robust Cyber security is really no longer optional, and as it was taking more and more of my time and my thoughts, I knew in my heart that I should be outsourcing this to trustworthy full time professionals ”.
Ciaran notes that, “as business email compromises, invoice redirections and man-in-the-middle attacks are on the rise in Ireland, many financial companies are behind the curve in protecting themselves. When this was raised by our Regulator The Central Bank of Ireland, I decided the time to act was now, as I could no longer afford not to have a full suite of demonstrable outsourced cyber protection measures in place, …to find a fully outsourced
solution at such an affordable price was also a very pleasant surprise”.

The Solution

Ciaran decided to engage with CommSec about additional protection for his business. That’s when he found out about CommSec Business Secure, an all-in-one cyber protection package for SMEs. The package is designed for business with 25 users and under. “For brokerages like mine, that may only have even 1 user, it gives them a-fit-and-forget security protection for a small monthly fee. Everything is managed for me and all my devices are protected”. Business Secure protects up to 3 devices per user. “Keeping my Clients and our Regulator happy are a key focus, Business Secure really gives me peace of mind, that I can demonstrate that am doing all I can to protect my business and keep my clients safe“.

David McNamara, CEO of Commsec remarks, “Business Secure was born out of the needs of small businesses like Blackall Financial. Just because they are smaller than enterprise clients does not mean their data is any less valuable. We are able to provide our SME clients with a high level of protection from device encryption, patching, to MFA and endpoint protection”. David adds, “this is seen a ground breaker in our industry as more often than not a small company isn’t attractive to managed service providers due to the low number of users and goes against their revenue generating models”.

Outcome

Blackall Financial has significantly improved its cyber protection with cutting edge security, and the client is content that CommSec’s Business Secure will help protect the business and its associated client data from cyber-attack. According to Ciaran, “the deployment was fast and easy, everything was configured over a remote connection. It requires no management from me. Most importantly I know the cyber security experts have my back 24/7, and whenever I ever need it”.

Some of the benefits of Business Secure:

1. Comprehensive cyber security protection from cyber threats and vulnerabilities across your network, devices, and people – fully managed service by CommSec
2. Access to CommSec’s Security Operations Helpdesk for security related queries and suspicious email activity
3. Protect all of your devices – up to 3 devices per user (e.g. PC, tablet and smartphone) all for an affordable monthly or annual cost– scale up and down the number of users as you need to
4. Easy and fast deployment – you will be fully protected within 2 working days via remote connection
5. Gives you the best protection for your business and mitigates the risk left over from most cyber insurance policies (i.e. loss of funds or revenue due to ransomware, malware and business email compromise) – Cyber insurance only protects against damages caused by electronic threats to your computer systems or data
6. Excellent ROI when compared to the cost of a cyber-attack, downtime, and the reputational damage caused over the long term