This workshop is designed for small business owner/managers, office managers or the “'accidental IT person”  to help understand the six National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) measures and how each applies to your business.   

During the workshop, you will create an asset register and identify your most critical data and suppliers as well as learn how to enable multi-factor authentication on our business email live in the session. 

Following the session you will be able to evaluate backup arrangements against NCSC criteria, know how to test a restore and finally, completed a self-assessment against the NCSC checklist and have created an action plan.

Workshop Content

• Why this matters
  o the threat landscape for Irish SMEs
  o what an attack actually costs
  o the six NCSC measures as a simple framework
  o real Irish scam examples, including AI-enabled fraud
• Know what you have - guided start on an asset register:
  o devices, data, accounts, cloud services and suppliers
  o identifying the data the business could not function without
  o update status and end-of-life kit
• Lock the front door
  o live, step-by-step enabling of multi-factor authentication on business email and one other key account
  o password managers and passphrases; changing default passwords
  o quick checks on anti-virus, firewall and disk encryption
• Prepare for the worst
  o backups reviewed against the NCSC's key questions - where is it stored, is it separate from live systems, who has access, is it in the EU?
  o cloud storage versus cloud backup
  o how ransomware exploits weak backup arrangements
  o scheduling a test restore
• Your plan
  o self-assessment against the NCSC cyber security checklist
  o each attendee identifies their top three actions
  o signposting to the NCSC's 12 Steps to Cyber Security

NOTE:  No technical background is required however attendees need access to your business email and key accounts during the session to take part in the hands-on exercises