October is Cybersecurity Awareness Month, and is a great reminder for all businesses to review how systems, data, and even staff remain protected. Although cyber security should be something that businesses are always aware of, now is the time to take your defences to the next level. Organisations of any size can be at risk, so keep an eye out for things like phishing emails, devices that haven’t had the latest software update, and stolen passwords.
The 2025/2026 Cyber Security Breaches Survey carried out by the UK government found that 43% of businesses had experienced a cyber security breach or attack during the last 12 months. Phishing was the most common type of cyber crime reported, which emphasises the importance of making cyber security part of everyday business practice.
Types of Cyber Threats
Unfortunately, cyber criminals don’t just use one method in order to gain access to sensitive information or disrupt services. Here are some of the most common threats:
| Threat | What it means for your business |
| Phishing | Fake emails, texts or calls try to persuade someone to share information, open a harmful link or make a payment. |
| Ransomware | Malicious software locks or encrypts files, with criminals demanding payment to restore access. |
| Malware | Harmful software, including viruses and spyware, can damage devices or steal information. |
| Account takeovers | Criminals use stolen or guessed login details to access email, cloud services or other business accounts. |
| Payment and email fraud | A criminal may impersonate a colleague, supplier or customer to request a payment or change bank details. |
| Denial-of-service attacks | A flood of online traffic can make a website or service unavailable to users. |
These threats often don’t occur in isolation either, they often overlap. A prime example is where a phishing email is used to steal an employee’s password to their company email. The attacker could then email internal contacts or even customers from that email address.
How To Reduce Your Risk
There isn’t a magic solution to prevent your business from being on the receiving end of a cyber attack, but there are processes and systems you can put in place to help reduce this risk.
1. Train staff to recognise suspicious messages
It is important that employees recognise links within emails that may be suspicious, so they think twice before clicking on them. The same goes for unexpected attachments, or responding to urgent payment requests. Staff should check the sender’s full email address, look for unusual wording, and verify requests directly through a separate channel. For example, with monetary requests staff should be trained to pick up the phone and call the supplier before changing their bank details.
There should also be a clear system in place for staff to report suspicious messages. This means the business is able to respond quickly to threats, before another member of staff makes a similar mistake by clicking on a link from the same email address.
2. Use strong passwords and two-step verification
Different passwords should be used for everything, and these passwords should also be strong (so not something like Password123!). A password manager is a great way to help staff create and store passwords securely.
Where available, make sure employees turn on two-step verification. This adds a second check when someone signs in, making it harder for an attacker to access an account with solely a password.
3. Keep devices and software up to date
While software updates often occur at inconvenient times and can be slightly annoying, they happen for a reason! Updates often fix security weaknesses that cyber criminals could exploit. By making sure operating systems, business software and browsers are up to date, this will help to protect your business. It is also a good idea to remove any accounts and access that are no longer needed, for example those belonging to former employees.
4. Protect your network & devices
Use suitable firewall and endpoint protection for your business. A firewall helps manage traffic entering and leaving your network, while endpoint protection helps detect and respond to threats on individual devices.
It is also worth thinking about how staff access company systems and networks when working remotely. Remote access still needs to be secure, and business devices need to be protected if they are lost or stolen.
5. Back up business-critical data
Backups are incredibly important when it comes to helping businesses recover from things like ransomware attacks, accidental deletion, hardware failure or other issues. If you don’t have the storage capacity to back everything up, then identify which files and systems are essential and keep them backed up regularly. It is also important to make sure you can restore files quickly if necessary too.
Keep backups protected from the same risks as your main systems, because if cyber criminals can access and encrypt both your live data and backups, recovery becomes an awful lot harder.
6. Prepare for an incident
If an attack is suspected, there should be a key person responsible for putting an action plan into place. It may be a case of simply disconnecting an affected device, changing passwords, or contacting your IT provider for assistance. Keep a record of key contacts and make sure that this is available if your normal systems are down.
How Reality Solutions Can Help
Here at Reality Solutions, we support businesses across Hull & Yorkshire with IT support and cyber security services. Our cyber security endpoint protection suite can help identify suspicious activity, and limit its spread. Our SonicWALL firewall solution can provide network protection with added extras such as intrusion prevention and email security. For ongoing system maintenance, remote management & monitoring provides visibility of IT systems and allows us to maintain a proactive approach for all of our clients.
Cyber security is an ongoing responsibility, not just a one-off tick-box exercise. Reviewing staff awareness, access controls, updates, network protection and backups can help your business build stronger defences. If you would like more information on how we can help, please contact us.
*This article contains general information in order to assist all of our customers and is meant for guidance only – there are no guarantees that the information we provide will be suitable for your particular needs. If you require specific assistance, we recommend that you seek professional guidance on your individual circumstances. Reality Solutions are in no way responsible for any loss or damage arising from any information contained within our articles.
