Cyber Security in Shropshire

Based here, not visiting

Solusec is based in Albrighton. Shropshire is where we live, which shapes what we offer here: engagements sized for organisations that are genuinely small, explanations pitched at people who are not security specialists, and honesty about what you do and do not need.

The county is not short of good businesses. It is short of local providers holding company-level accreditation. Most organisations here choose between a national firm adding travel to every onsite day, or an IT support company offering security as a sideline without the accreditation procurement teams and insurers look for.

The realistic picture

Most organisations in the county are not being targeted by sophisticated adversaries. They are exposed to the same commodity attacks as everyone else — phishing leading to business email compromise, ransomware arriving through an unpatched remote access service, invoice fraud following a mailbox compromise. Not exotic, and largely preventable.

What has changed is assurance pressure. Customers, funders, insurers and public sector buyers now ask for evidence, and "we take security seriously" no longer answers the question. That drives most of the enquiries we get.

Manufacturing and engineering

Telford's industrial estates — Stafford Park, Halesfield, Hortonwood — house a dense concentration of engineering businesses, many supplying larger customers who have recently started asking security questions they never asked before.

Schools and multi-academy trusts

Education is a persistent target, holds significant personal data about children, and operates on budgets that make enterprise security provision impossible. We work with schools and trusts across the county, priced accordingly and explained in terms a business manager can take to governors.

Charities and the third sector

Frequently handling sensitive beneficiary data with minimal IT support, and increasingly asked security questions by funders as a grant condition. We keep this work proportionate and will tell you where free NCSC guidance is genuinely sufficient rather than charging you to restate it.

Agriculture and rural business

Farm management platforms, environmental and livestock monitoring, automated processing, and the payment and subsidy systems around them. Digital dependency has grown considerably faster than security attention, and this sector is materially under-served.

Where to start

For most Shropshire organisations, in order: get Cyber Essentials, because it addresses the attacks that actually happen and answers most assurance questions. Test your external perimeter, because that is what an opportunistic attacker sees. Then, if you have a web application handling anything sensitive, test it properly.

Common questions