The Small Business Cyber Security Guy | Cybersecurity for SMB & Startups
Episodes
When Confidence Becomes the Vulnerability: How Ego Opens the Door to Breaches
23 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Tonight’s episode opens in an empty studio, a fridge with two bottles of Prosecco and a conspicuously absent Noel — the perfect stage for a conver...
Don’t Buy the Badge: The Real SMB 1001 Guide for UK Small Businesses
16 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Do small businesses really need another cyber security badge? In this episode, Noel Bradford, Mauven MacLeod and Graham Falkner dig into SMB 1001, a f...
March 2026 Patch Tuesday — Take It or Stay Vulnerable
11 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Listen in as the Small Business Cybersecurity Guy rips through March 2026 Patch Tuesday like a mechanic with a torque wrench: blunt, precise, and impo...
Willow vs Danzel — Navigating Cyber Essentials V3.3 Before the Deadline
09 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Imagine your website is a billboard: a shining Cyber Essentials badge promising security and trust. Now imagine a regulator, insurer or large customer...
They're Not 'Hacking' — They're Logging In: The Dangerous Myth Small Businesses Fall For
06 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Imagine an attacker not as a hoodie-wearing wizard wrestling with your firewall, but as someone quietly slipping through an unlocked back door with ke...
Three and a Half Pence: The Currys Breach That Took Nine Years to Matter
02 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Picture yourself tapping your card at a bustling store, the till chirps, you walk away thinking that’s the end of the story. For millions of Currys'...
Locked In: Palantir, Microsoft and the Hidden Political Risk in Your Cloud
23 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Picture this: you’re a minister in Europe and Washington quietly asks for a peek. Your emails, drafts and cabinet notes aren’t in a secret vault —...
Edge Devices Under Siege — 393 Days of Unnoticed Access
16 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode of Small Business Cybersecurity Guy, host Maurven McLeod and guest Dr Corinne Jefferson (former US government intelligence analyst tur...
February 2026 Patch Tuesday: Six Actively Exploited Flaws — DWM Strikes Twice
11 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Host Graham Falkner breaks down Microsoft’s February 2026 Patch Tuesday: more than 50 vulnerabilities across Windows and Microsoft 365, including si...
Four Campaigns, One Nightmare: How 2026's Attacks Bypass Every Small-Business Defence
09 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
In this urgent episode of Small Business Cybersecurity Guy, hosts Mauven MacLeod and Graham Falkner join the notably fed-up Noel Bradford to unpack fo...
Security Theatre Exposed — Passkeys, the CISA Leak, and the Hidden Value in Your Cyber Insurance
02 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
In this urgent episode of The Small Business Cybersecurity Guide, hosts Noel Bradford, Mauven McLeod and Graham Faulkner bring together three experts ...
Who’s in Charge When Ransomware Hits? Building Your Incident Response Team
19 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode of Small Business Cybersecurity Guy, hosts Mauven MacLeod, Noel Bradford and Graham Faulkner walk you through Module One of their six-...
114 Updates, 1 Active Exploit — January Patch Tuesday: Patch Today or Pay Tomorrow
14 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Hosted by Graham Falkner, this episode is a rapid, no‑nonsense January Patch Tuesday breakdown aimed at small businesses and IT owners. Graham walks...
UK Government Admits Cyber Chaos — 28% of Systems ‘Cannot Be Defended’: What SMBs Need to Know
12 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode of the Small Business Cybersecurity Guy, host Noel Bradford is joined by Mauven McLeod and Graham Falkner to unpack the Cabinet Office...
When MFA Isn’t Enough: Inside Adversary‑in‑the‑Middle Attacks
05 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode Mauven McLeod and Graham Faulkner (with Noel Bradford joining partway through) unpack a worrying trend: adversary‑in‑the‑middle ...
3AM Ringtone of Doom? Build Your 6-Module Incident Response Plan
29 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Episode Overview Episode Type: Series Preview Trailer Duration: 90 seconds Release Date: December 2025 Series Launch: January 2026 Hosts: Noel Bradfor...
Facepalm Retrospective: 2025’s Greatest Cyber Fails — From 123456 to the Louvre
22 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Welcome to the Small Business Cybersecurity Guy Christmas Special with host Noel Bradford and guests Mauven MacLeod and Graham Falkner. This episode i...
Boards, Breaches and Accountability: Why Small Firms Need Risk Registers Now
15 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Do UK small businesses need cyber risk registers? Graham said no. After this 40-minute debate with Noel Bradford, he changed his mind completely. This...
Urgent: Patch CVE-2025-62221 — December Patch Tuesday Breakdown
10 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Show notes December 2025 just shipped the last Microsoft security fixes of the year. Fifty seven vulnerabilities, three zero days, and one actively ex...
The Printer Is Watching: How Your Office Gear Is the Biggest Cyber Threat
08 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
For our 30th episode, we're tackling the cybersecurity blind spot that almost no one discusses but everyone should worry about. You've secured your la...
Reverse Benchmarking: Learn from the Biggest Cyber Faceplants
01 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
What if the best way to protect your business isn't copying what the successful companies do, but avoiding what the failures did wrong? Welcome to rev...
Prison for Negligent Directors? Rebooting UK Cyber Enforcement
24 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In this provocative second instalment of the accountability series, hosts Noel Bradford and Mauven MacLeod lay out a detailed proposal for a UK cybers...
When Ransomware Kills: Should Directors Face Prison for Cyber Negligence?
17 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
What happens when business negligence causes serious harm to thousands of people? If a faulty ladder injures someone, directors face prison time. If f...
November Patch Tuesday Storm: Zero‑Days, Exchange Exploits & WSUS Emergency
11 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Graham Falkner delivers an authoritative deep dive into November 2025's Patch Tuesday updates, covering the most critical security vulnerabilities aff...
Big Brother Is Watching Your VPN — The Online Safety Act Unpacked
11 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The Spy Who Monitored Me - Ofcom's VPN Surveillance Farce Episode Information Episode Title: The Spy Who Monitored Me: Ofcom's VPN Surveillance Farce ...
From SMS to FIDO2: A Small Business Guide to Phishing‑Resistant Authentication
10 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode of the Small Business Cybersecurity Guide, hosts Noel Bradford and Mauven McLeod are joined by Mark Bell from Authentrend (episode spo...
Ignored Audits, Ancient Servers, and a Cherry Picker — Inside the Louvre Jewel Robbery
07 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
On October 19th, 2025, four men dressed as construction workers stole €102 million in French crown jewels from the Louvre Museum in just seven min...
No More Excuses: Cyber Essentials Forces MFA on Every Cloud Service (Apr 2026)
03 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode Graham and Mauven break down a major overhaul to Cyber Essentials coming into force from April 2026. The hosts explain the headline ch...
FinalSpark, Ethics & Security: What Living-Neuron Computers Mean for Your Company
03 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
What if I told you there’s a laboratory in Switzerland where scientists are building computers from living human neurons? Sounds like science fic...
Ghosts in the Machine — Halloween Special: When Your Tools Turn on You
31 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
This Halloween special of the Small Business Cyber Security Guy peels back the curtain on the scariest place hackers hide: the tools and toolchains yo...
The Doorman Fallacy: How Cost Cuts Become Catastrophes
27 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The £18,000 Saving That Cost £200,000 in Revenue Ever cut a cost that seemed obviously wasteful, only to discover you'd destroyed something far more...
Beds, Bins and DNS: How One AWS Region Outage Sank the Smart Home
26 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Hosts Mauven MacLeod and Graham Falkner deliver a fiery rant about the recent AWS US East 1 DNS outage and what it reveals about our dependence on clo...
InfoSec vs CyberSec vs IT Security: Stop Wasting Money on the Wrong One | UK SMB Reality Check
20 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Vendors love throwing around "InfoSec," "CyberSec," and "IT Security" like they're selling completely different solutions. Half the time it's the same...
Discord's Data Breach and the UK's Digital ID Debacle
16 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Noel and Mauven unpack Discord’s third-party breach that exposed government-ID checks from age-appeal cases, then weigh it against Westminster’s p...
172 Security Holes Just Got Patched - But Is YOUR Business Already Compromised?
15 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Microsoft has released the October 2025 Patch Tuesday update, and the numbers tell a serious story: 172 security flaws patched, six of them zero-day e...
Why the Chancellor Just Wrote to UK CEOs: Cyber Attacks Surge 50%
14 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Ministers have sent an urgent letter to UK business leaders after the NCSC handled 204 nationally significant cyber incidents in the past year, with 1...
Extra Credit: The Corrections, The Code, and The Safeguarding Bombshell
13 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
We were wrapping up our interview with Tammy Buchanan about the Kido nursery breach when she said: "Actually, there were some really important points ...
Detention: The Day 8,000 Children's Data Went Missing
07 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Episode Description Following the Kido nursery breach where 8,000 children's photos were stolen and posted online, we sit down with education sector e...
Why Windows 11 25H2 Is a Quiet Security Game-Changer
01 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Host Graham Faulkner dives into Windows 11 25H2 in this solo episode, explaining why this understated update matters for security, stability, and smal...
Your 3-Year-Old's Data Is on the Dark Web Right Now: The Kido Wake-Up Call
30 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In 40 years of Information Technology work, Noel Bradford has never been this angry. On September 25th, 2025, the Radiant ransomware gang stole person...
When Teen Hackers Test Your Defences: Lessons from the School Yard to the Boardroom
29 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Join hosts Noel Bradford and Mauven McLeod in this Back-to-School special of the Small Business Cybersecurity Guy podcast as they trace a line from 19...
£80M Blow: How Teenagers and One Phone Call Bankrupted Co-op's Cybersecurity
25 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Co-op's CEO has just confirmed that their cybersecurity disaster cost £80 million. The attackers? Teenagers are using basic social engineering. In th...
DORA's Wake-Up Call: How JLR and Collins Aerospace Exposed a New Regulatory Storm
23 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Date: 23 September 2025 — Host Mauven McLeod delivers a furious, fast-paced analysis of two seismic cyber incidents and what they mean for UK and gl...
One IT Manager, Massive Risk: Burnout, Sabotage and System Failures
22 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
This episode explores the risks of relying on a single IT manager as an entire IT department. Hosts Noel Bradford and Mauven MacLeod unpack why paying...
EXPOSED: The £200k Mistake 90% of Small Businesses Make (Dave From IT Isn't Supposed To Run Your Technology Strategy!)
15 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Most small business owners think CIO stands for "Chief I-Fix-Everything Officer" and CISO means "Chief I-Worry-About-Security Officer.&...
81 Security Patches + Windows 10's Final Countdown: What Every Business Owner Must Know
11 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
September 2025 Patch Tuesday Show NotesSeptember 2025 Patch Tuesday: Critical Business UpdateSpecial Edition with Graham FalknerMicrosoft's September...
Electoral Commission: 40 Million Hacked, Zero Fines - But Small Businesses Pay Thousands for Less
09 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Episode SummaryThe Electoral Commission suffered a 14-month data breach affecting 40 million UK voters, yet faced zero ICO enforcement action. Meanwhi...
60% of Small Businesses DIE After Cyberattacks - Are You Next?
08 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
🚨 SHOCKING: 60% of Small Businesses Shut Down Forever After Cyberattacks96% of hackers target YOUR business, not big corporations. Think you're too...
48 Hours to Zero: How Ransomware Destroyed a 158-Year Business
01 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
K&P Logistics — 158 years in business — wiped out in 48 hours by ransomware. Noel Bradford and Maurven MacLeod unpack that real-world catastro...
EXPOSED: How One Weak Password Killed a 158-Year-Old Company & Cost 2,000+ Jobs (The UK Cyber Graveyard)
01 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
💀 Welcome to the UK's Cyber Graveyard 💀Over 2,000 jobs GONE. Centuries of business history DELETED. All because of weak passwords and basic secu...
The Shocking Truth About What Actually Works in Small Business Cybersecurity
25 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
After 17 episodes covering everything from basic password security to nation-state threats targeting corner shops, Noel and Mauven reveal what actuall...
AI Cyber Threats Target Small Business - insights from DefCon 33 & Black Hat 2025
18 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
🎧 Latest Episode Alert | Fresh intelligence from DefCon 33 reveals how AI-enhanced cyber threats to small business are accelerating rapidly. Techni...
When Your Safety Net Becomes the Target
11 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
🚨 Episode 11: When Your Safety Net Becomes the TargetBackup Security Under Fire + Business Email Compromise Reality CheckYour backups aren't protec...
White House CIO Insights Part 3 - Advanced Threats & AI
04 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In the final part of our White House CIO Insights series, we explore the cutting-edge AI-powered threats that are transforming cybersecurity. Our spec...
The UK Government's Ransomware Gambit: Why Your SMB Just Became a Bigger Target
01 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
UK Ransomware Ban: Why Your SMB Just Became a Bigger TargetShow: The Small Business Cyber Security Guy Hot TakeHosts: Graham Falkner & Noel Bradfo...
Help Desk MFA Reset Fails: Scattered Spider vs. UK Retail
31 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Episode DescriptionJoin Noel Bradford and Graham Falkner for another cybersecurity hot take as they dive into the alarming world of help desk social e...
Orwell was right - Big Brother is Watching just 41 year late - UK Online Protection Act is here!
29 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
1984 is here! Just 41 years late - Big Brother is watching and censorship is increasing.The UK's Online Safety Act went live July 25th, 2025. VPN usag...
Cyber Essentials - White House Security Principles for UK Small Business
28 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Part 2 of White House CIO Insights Series | ~38 minutesHow do you implement White House-level security without White House-level budgets? Building on ...
White House CIO Insights - The Threat Landscape Small Business Faces
21 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
What's scarier - protecting the President or a small business in Manchester? Former White House CIO Theresa Payton says they face exactly the same sop...
The Hidden Dangers of Technical Debt
14 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Show NotesDuration: 25:16Hosts: Mauven MacLeod & Noel BradfordTechnical debt isn't just old computers - it's a ticking time bomb in every UK business....
McDonalds' SuperSized Cyber Screw Up
10 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Show Guide: When Basics Break - Special Bonus EpisodeDuration: 9 minutes | Type: Special EpisodeEpisode SummaryMcDonald's password "123456&qu...
Shadow IT - The Unauthorised Technology That's Already Inside Your Business
07 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Shadow IT: The Unauthorised Technology Inside Your Business42% of business applications are unauthorised Shadow IT. Your employees have built hackers ...
Supply Chain Security - Your Weakest Link
30 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
What if hackers are already inside your business... and you invited them in?63% of data breaches involve third-party vendors. Your payment processor, ...
Special Briefing - Middle East Cybersecurity Threats to UK SMBs
24 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Five days ago, it was Israel versus Iran. Over the weekend, American B-2 bombers dropped 14 bunker-busters on Iranian nuclear facilities. Today, your ...
Passwords are dead, Long live passwords
22 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Noel and Morven explain why passwords are failing us, how bad habits put us at risk, and what small businesses can do about it today. From password ov...
Patch Tuesday and the Relentless Race
16 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
This episode unpacks the global impact of Patch Tuesday, its evolution, and the chaos it tamed in cybersecurity. Noel and Mauven explore why patch man...
Certification Without Security
09 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
This episode exposes why cyber certifications like ISO27001 and SOC 2 don’t guarantee real security. We break down the difference between frameworks...
(Pilot Episode) Outsmarted by Deception
02 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Iranian cyber attackers aren’t just hacking—they’re outsmarting and outmaneuvering defenses through psychological cunning. Noel and Morven break...