The UK government launched its Cyber Governance Code of Practice on 8 April 2025. It is aimed primarily at boards and directors because cyber security is not only a technical issue: an incident can stop operations, damage customer trust and create serious financial exposure.
The Code was designed for medium and large organisations, but its principles scale well to an SME. A small leadership team can apply them without creating a heavy governance process.
Give cyber risk a named owner
Someone at leadership level should own cyber risk and make sure it is considered alongside financial, operational and legal risks. Your IT provider can advise and operate controls, but the business must decide its priorities, acceptable risk and recovery expectations.
Know which services matter most
Identify the technology, information and suppliers that support essential activities such as taking orders, accessing customer records, paying staff and communicating with clients. Agree how long each activity can be unavailable and how much data loss the business could tolerate.
Ask for useful reporting
A long list of technical alerts is not board assurance. Leadership reporting should show trends and exceptions, including:
- unsupported devices and overdue critical updates;
- multi-factor authentication and endpoint-protection coverage;
- backup success and restore-test results;
- high-risk suppliers and outstanding remediation;
- security incidents, lessons learned and repeat problems;
- staff training completion and phishing-reporting behaviour.
Review the measures regularly and set clear tolerances. A red status should lead to an owner, action and deadline.
Include suppliers and cloud services
Most SMEs rely on external platforms and support partners. Record which suppliers can access sensitive data or administer systems, then confirm their security commitments, access controls, incident-notification process and exit arrangements. Remove third-party accounts when they are no longer required.
Practise the response
An incident plan is valuable only if people know how to use it. Run a short tabletop exercise based on a realistic scenario such as ransomware, a compromised mailbox or loss of the main internet connection. Include leadership, IT, communications and any critical suppliers. Record decisions and improve the plan after the exercise.
A quarterly leadership checklist
- Have our critical services or suppliers changed?
- Are our highest risks reducing at the agreed pace?
- Can we recover essential data and operations within our target time?
- Are serious incidents and near misses producing measurable improvements?
- Do we have a funded plan for unsupported technology and known gaps?
MSP247 can translate technical evidence into a practical improvement plan and clear management reporting. Our IT consultancy, managed support and connectivity services cover the whole operating environment. Contact us to arrange a cyber governance review.