Uploaded August 2025 | Updated September 2026, 7 hours ago
Sophie Horgan (NCSC, NZ)
The talk will be presented by Sophie Horgan, Senior Communication and Engagement Advisor NCSC. Sophie joined CERT NZ (now NCSC) over four years ago and prior to that worked with the organisation on media relations and incident response. Throughout that time, she has gained a great deal of knowledge through working with stakeholders such as media, SMEs and general public who look at cyber security through a different lens than those working in the field. This helped Sophie understand how we bring our knowledge and insight to SMEs in a way that is digestible and fit for purpose.
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Small to medium enterprises (SMEs) are an important part of the worldwide economy. Good cyber security practices are an integral part of keeping SMEs secure and running their business practices smoothly.However significant numbers of SMEs are not meeting best practice cyber security standards. In New Zealand less than half of SMEs would describe their organisation as prepared for a cyber attack. In Australia, 43% of cyber crime targets small business. Research tells us that while SMEs are aware and concerned, competing priorities and lack of knowledge or time stops action. How do we make cyber security simpler, more accessible and easier for SMEs to action? How do we get them to make it a priority? We know from international engagement that this is a problem faced by agencies worldwide working to support SMEs.The Nation Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) has developed and produced a video series designed to engage with businesses at their level, along side simple resources they could use to continue their cyber security journey.
Sophie Horgan (NCSC, NZ)
The talk will be presented by Sophie Horgan, Senior Communication and Engagement Advisor NCSC. Sophie joined CERT NZ (now NCSC) over four years ago and prior to that worked with the organisation on media relations and incident response. Throughout that time, she has gained a great deal of knowledge through working with stakeholders such as media, SMEs and general public who look at cyber security through a different lens than those working in the field. This helped Sophie understand how we bring our knowledge and insight to SMEs in a way that is digestible and fit for purpose.
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Small to medium enterprises (SMEs) are an important part of the worldwide economy. Good cyber security practices are an integral part of keeping SMEs secure and running their business practices smoothly.However significant numbers of SMEs are not meeting best practice cyber security standards. In New Zealand less than half of SMEs would describe their organisation as prepared for a cyber attack. In Australia, 43% of cyber crime targets small business. Research tells us that while SMEs are aware and concerned, competing priorities and lack of knowledge or time stops action. How do we make cyber security simpler, more accessible and easier for SMEs to action? How do we get them to make it a priority? We know from international engagement that this is a problem faced by agencies worldwide working to support SMEs.The Nation Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) has developed and produced a video series designed to engage with businesses at their level, along side simple resources they could use to continue their cyber security journey.
