Security that never sleeps
Your data stays protected around the clock with strong, enterprise-level security that works quietly in the background without adding complexity. We combine prevention, monitoring and realistic recovery planning so a bad day never becomes a business-ending one.
Small businesses are not too small to be targeted. Most attacks are not aimed at anyone in particular: they are automated, they scan for a weak password or an unpatched machine, and a 20-person firm in Kent looks identical to everyone else from the outside. The difference is that a larger organisation usually survives it.
What we protect, and how the layers fit together
There is no single product that makes a business secure, so we work in layers on the assumption that any one of them can fail.
Identity comes first, because stolen credentials are how most incidents begin. Multi-factor authentication on every account without exception, conditional access rules that block sign-ins that make no sense, administrative accounts kept separate from everyday ones, and dormant accounts closed rather than left sitting there.
Then the devices. Endpoint protection on every laptop, desktop and server, patching applied on a schedule rather than when somebody remembers, disk encryption so a laptop left on a train is an inconvenience instead of a breach, and a way to wipe a device remotely.
Then the perimeter and the inbox. Managed firewalls monitored around the clock, email filtering that catches most of it, and awareness training for the part that gets through, because phishing is aimed at people rather than systems.
Then recovery, which is the layer most often neglected. Backups that are tested by actually restoring from them, held somewhere an attacker who reaches your network cannot also reach, with a written plan for who does what in the first hour.
We are certified to ISO 27001 for information security management and hold Cyber Essentials Plus ourselves, so the standards we ask of your business are ones we have already been audited against.
Our Cyber Security service includes:
- Managed firewalls and network protection, monitored 24/7
- Phishing defence email filtering plus user awareness training
- Endpoint protection on every laptop, desktop and server
- Multi-factor authentication and identity protection everywhere
- Cyber Essentials & Cyber Essentials Plus certification, guided end to end
- Cloud backups with tested disaster-recovery plans
- Security reviews regular audits of risks, patches and permissions
Cyber Essentials certification
We take businesses through Cyber Essentials and Cyber Essentials Plus from start to finish: hardening your systems, preparing the evidence and getting you certified. It protects your business, wins tenders and reduces insurance premiums.
The difference between the two matters. Cyber Essentials is a self-assessment reviewed by a certifying body. Cyber Essentials Plus adds hands-on technical verification, where an assessor tests your systems rather than taking your word for it. Public sector contracts and larger supply chains increasingly require the Plus version, so it is worth checking what your tenders actually ask for before certifying to the wrong level.
Certification lasts twelve months. We treat it as an annual cycle rather than a one-off scramble, which is generally the difference between passing first time and rebuilding your evidence pack every spring.
How we get you secure
Security work is easy to start and easy to abandon halfway. This is the sequence we use so it finishes.
- 1. Assessment. We audit what exists: patch levels, account permissions, MFA coverage, backup health, firewall rules and the gaps between them. You get the findings in plain English, ranked by risk.
- 2. Quick wins. The changes that remove the most risk for the least disruption go in first, usually MFA coverage, dormant accounts and outstanding patches. This is often a matter of days.
- 3. Hardening. Endpoint protection, conditional access, encryption, email filtering and monitoring rolled out across the estate on an agreed schedule.
- 4. Recovery. Backups configured, isolated and then tested by restoring from them, with a written incident plan naming who does what.
- 5. Certification and review. Cyber Essentials or Cyber Essentials Plus if you need it, then ongoing monitoring with regular reviews of risks, patches and permissions.
Response times when something happens
A security incident is a critical-priority ticket, which carries a contractual 15-minute response guarantee backed by service credits. That is a written commitment in your service agreement, not a published average.
Monitoring runs 24 hours a day. Business hours for the helpdesk are 08:30 to 17:30, Monday to Friday, excluding public holidays, with 24/7 cover available where your operation needs it. If we detect something outside those hours, you hear from us regardless.
What happens in the first hour is largely decided beforehand, which is why the written incident plan is part of the work rather than an optional extra: what to isolate, who to call, which regulators or insurers need telling and within what deadline.
What this looks like in practice
Two Kent organisations with genuine confidentiality obligations, and what changed for them.
Why choose CT1 for Cyber Security?
- Certified expertise, including Cyber Essentials Plus ourselves
- Layered protection, no single point of failure
- Plain-English reporting: know your risks without the jargon
- Realistic recovery planning, tested before you need it
Get started today
Download our free cybersecurity checklist or book a free IT health check to find the gaps in your defences before someone else does.
