Cybersecurity Consulting for Small & Mid-Size Businesses
Most SMB breaches don't start with a sophisticated attack — they start with an open port that's been exposed for months, a firewall rule nobody meant to leave in place, or credentials that haven't rotated since the last IT person left. Our cybersecurity consulting for small businesses finds those gaps before someone else does, and closes them with documented, repeatable controls — not a list of alarming findings you're left to figure out alone.
Pain Points
Signs You Need a Security Audit
You've never had a formal network security audit — or the last one was more than 18 months ago — and you're not confident you know what's exposed to the internet.
Your firewall was configured by a vendor or contractor years ago. Nobody has reviewed the ruleset since. You're not sure what's inbound, what's outbound, or why some of those rules exist.
Remote employees connect to company systems over personal Wi-Fi with no enforced VPN — or the VPN is in place but nobody has audited who still has active credentials.
A customer, partner, or insurer has asked for documentation of your security practices — and you're not sure what you'd send them.
You're heading toward a SOC 2, HIPAA, or PCI-DSS audit and the technical controls section of your gap assessment is largely blank.
Services Covered
What We Cover
Vulnerability Scanning
Automated scanning with Nessus and Nmap across your internal network and internet-facing services — identifying open ports, unpatched software, weak cipher suites, and misconfigured services before an attacker does.
Penetration Testing
Manual, scoped penetration testing for small businesses that goes beyond automated scanners — testing exploitability of findings, chaining vulnerabilities, and validating whether your controls hold under real attack conditions.
Firewall Hardening
Full ruleset audit and reconfiguration for pfSense, OPNsense, and Fortinet firewalls — removing overly permissive rules, enabling IDS/IPS, configuring geo-blocking, and documenting every rule with a business justification.
VPN Setup & Hardening
WireGuard or IPsec VPN deployment and configuration for remote access — with MFA enforcement, split tunneling policy, certificate-based authentication, and an audit of existing user credentials and access grants.
Security Policy Development
Written acceptable use, access control, incident response, and password policies — practical documents your team will actually follow, formatted for both employee acknowledgment and auditor review.
Compliance Prep
Technical control implementation for HIPAA Security Rule, SOC 2 Type I/II, and PCI-DSS requirements — access logging, encryption in transit and at rest, audit trails, and vendor risk documentation.
If your vulnerabilities are rooted in network architecture — flat subnets, no segmentation, or exposed management interfaces — we pair cybersecurity consulting with our network infrastructure consulting work so the fix addresses the root cause, not just the symptoms.
Our Process
How a Security Engagement Works
Scoping & Discovery
We start with a scoping call to define what's in scope — IP ranges, internet-facing services, specific compliance frameworks, and any systems that need to stay off-limits during testing. You receive a written scope document and rules of engagement before any scanning begins. We then run Nmap discovery and Nessus vulnerability scans across your environment, alongside manual review of firewall rules, VPN configurations, and access control policies.
Findings & Prioritization
You receive a written findings report — not a raw scanner export. Each finding is rated by exploitability and business impact, with a plain-language explanation of what it means and a specific remediation step. We walk through the report with your IT lead on a video call, answer questions, and agree on a remediation priority order based on your risk tolerance and timeline.
Remediation & Verification
For Audit + Hardening engagements, we implement the fixes directly — firewall reconfiguration, VPN deployment, policy documentation, patch coordination. When remediation is complete, we run a follow-up vulnerability scan to verify the findings are closed and deliver an updated report you can share with insurers, auditors, or leadership.
Pricing
Engagement Tiers
Fixed-fee engagements — no hourly billing surprises. Scope is agreed in writing before work begins.
Tier 1
Security Audit
$895
One-time, fixed fee
- Nmap and Nessus vulnerability scan
- Firewall ruleset review
- VPN and remote access review
- Written findings report
- Prioritized remediation checklist
- 60-minute review call
Tier 2
Audit + Hardening
$2,495
One-time, fixed fee
- Everything in Security Audit
- Firewall reconfiguration (pfSense, OPNsense, or Fortinet)
- WireGuard or IPsec VPN deployment
- Security policy documentation (2 policies)
- Follow-up re-scan after remediation
- Updated report for insurers or auditors
Tier 3
Security Retainer
$795/mo
Month-to-month, cancel anytime
- Monthly vulnerability scanning
- Patch advisory and risk notifications
- Quarterly security review call
- Ongoing policy and compliance support
- Incident response on-call (business hours)
- Annual full audit included
FAQ
Common Questions
A vulnerability scan (using tools like Nessus or Nmap) finds known weaknesses automatically — open ports, unpatched services, misconfigurations. A penetration test goes further: a human actively tries to exploit what the scanner found. For most 50–200 person companies, a thorough scan plus manual review of critical findings is the right starting point. Penetration testing for small businesses is most valuable when you already have a mature security baseline or face a specific compliance requirement that mandates it.
Regulation isn't what makes you a target — internet exposure does. Most SMB breaches happen through unpatched services, weak credentials, or misconfigured firewalls that a basic vulnerability scanning service would catch. Cyber liability insurers are also increasingly requiring documented security practices before issuing or renewing coverage. An audit gives you a written record that you've looked — and a clear fix list if you haven't.
Minimally. We run scans from inside your network during off-peak hours. Active scanning generates unusual traffic that some monitoring tools will flag — we coordinate timing with your IT team so it doesn't trigger unnecessary alerts or on-call pages. For engagements that include penetration testing, we provide a written rules-of-engagement document and a defined testing window before anything starts.
Yes. We work through the technical controls portion of SOC 2 Type I/II and HIPAA Security Rule requirements — access controls, encryption in transit and at rest, audit logging, incident response procedures, and vendor risk documentation. We handle the technical implementation side so your compliance prep isn't stalled waiting on IT. We don't replace a compliance attorney or a certified auditor, but we make sure the technical side is ready when they arrive.