Toolkit

Audit Like a Pro: A DIY Cybersecurity Checklist for the SMBs Budget

Most formal cybersecurity audits cost thousands of dollars and result in a 100-page PDF that small business owners never read. However, for SMBs , you can conduct a highly effective self-assessment using free tools and a few hours of focused work. You don't…

By SecureBusinessHub Editorial, International cybersecurity desk — 2025-10-22 · 7 min read

1. The external perimeter check

Start with what the internet can see. Use a free service like Shodan or Censys to search for your company's IP addresses. Are there open ports, like RDP or database ports, that shouldn't be exposed? Most attackers start with exactly this kind of scan. If you find open ports that shouldn't be public, close them.

Think of it as checking your building at night to see which windows are unlocked.

Leveraging OSINT

OSINT means using publicly available information the same way an attacker would. Search for leaked credentials, company documents, or employee data already available on the dark web or public code repositories like GitHub. Have I Been Pwned offers domain-level searches for free. TheHarvester can show you what's publicly associated with your company. Understanding what an attacker already has before they act is useful.

2. The identity audit

Open your admin panels for Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, and your main SaaS tools. Look for zombie accounts belonging to former employees or contractors that were never deactivated. These are often unmonitored and make attractive targets.

3. Vulnerability scanning

Open-source tools like OpenVAS or Nmap let you scan your internal network for outdated systems. If you're running Windows 10 versions from 2022, those have known unpatched vulnerabilities that attackers actively exploit.

4. The culture test

Walk around your office (or hold a remote security drill). Can you spot passwords written on sticky notes? Would a random employee click a link in a mock phishing email? You can use free tools like Gophish to run this. Auditing your people reveals as much as auditing your servers.

5. Using compliance frameworks as a checklist

You don't need to pursue ISO 27001 or SOC2 certification to use their control lists. For most SMBs, the CIS Critical Security Controls v8 or the NIST Cybersecurity Framework give you a prioritized checklist. The first five CIS controls cover roughly 80% of practical defensive value.

6. Review your backups

A backup you've never tested is not a backup. Spend an hour trying to restore a single file from your most critical system. If it takes more than four hours to find and restore one file, your disaster recovery plan has a problem. Test before you need it.

NIS2 requirements: the second regime to know about

Data protection law is not the only European regime a business gets asked about. The NIS2 directive sets baseline cybersecurity and incident-reporting obligations for organisations in a defined list of sectors, and it is the source of most of the security questions that now arrive attached to contracts. The two regimes cover different ground: data protection law governs personal data and what people can ask you to do with it, while the NIS2 requirements govern the security and resilience of network and information systems, whether or not personal data is involved. A single incident can engage both, on separate clocks, to separate authorities.

The directive applies to organisations in its listed sectors that are at least medium-sized, meaning broadly fifty or more employees or turnover and balance sheet above ten million euros. That size rule puts most small businesses outside its direct scope, and the honest answer for a ten-person company is usually that the directive does not regulate it. What the size rule does not do is keep the requirements away, because one of them is supply chain security: organisations inside scope are expected to consider the security practices of their direct suppliers, and the way that expectation shows up in the world is as a questionnaire in your inbox.

The measures the directive names are a reasonable checklist for any business, which is why they are worth knowing even when they do not apply to you directly. They cover risk analysis and written security policies, incident handling, business continuity and backups, supply chain security, secure development and vulnerability handling, basic cyber hygiene and training including for management, encryption and access control policies, and multi-factor authentication. Reporting is staged and fast for the organisations it covers: an early warning within twenty-four hours of becoming aware of a significant incident, a fuller notification within seventy-two hours, and a final report within one month.

Because the directive is national law in each member state rather than a single rulebook, the details of scope, thresholds and reporting differ by country. For a fuller explanation of the instrument itself, see our guide to what the NIS2 directive is, and for the supplier side of the supply chain obligation, our walkthrough of vendor risk assessment. The reporting clocks that run alongside data protection deadlines are covered in data breach notification requirements.

Frequently asked questions

Does NIS2 apply to a small business?

NIS2 generally applies to organisations in its listed sectors that are at least medium-sized, meaning broadly fifty or more employees or turnover and balance sheet total above ten million euros. Most smaller businesses fall outside its direct scope, unless a member state has specifically designated them or they sit in one of the size-independent categories such as DNS service providers or trust service providers. Being outside scope does not stop the directive reaching you through customers who are inside it.

What is the difference between GDPR and NIS2?

GDPR governs personal data: what you may collect, why you may hold it, and what rights people have over it. NIS2 governs the security and resilience of network and information systems in specific sectors, whether or not personal data is involved. One incident can engage both regimes at once, on separate reporting clocks and to separate authorities.

How long do you have to report a data breach?

Under the European model, a personal data breach is reported to the supervisory authority without undue delay and, where feasible, within seventy-two hours of becoming aware of it, and affected individuals are told without undue delay where the risk to them is high. Organisations in scope of NIS2 carry a separate obligation: an early warning within twenty-four hours, a fuller notification within seventy-two hours, and a final report within one month.

Does a small business need a data protection officer?

Under GDPR a data protection officer is required where the organisation is a public authority, where its core activities involve regular and systematic monitoring of people on a large scale, or where its core activities involve large-scale processing of special category or criminal offence data. Most small businesses meet none of those tests and are not required to appoint one, though naming someone internally as the contact for privacy questions is worth doing regardless.

What should a small business do when a client's security questionnaire asks about NIS2?

Answer what you actually do rather than what you think the client wants to hear. The questions usually cover written security policies, incident handling and how fast you would notify them, multi-factor authentication, access control when staff join and leave, backup and recovery arrangements, and which of your own subprocessors touch their data. Gaps are common, and disclosing one with a date for closing it lands far better than an answer that does not survive the follow-up question.

Do these rules reach a business based outside the EU?

They can. GDPR reaches organisations outside the EU that offer goods or services to people in the EU or monitor their behaviour, and other regions have their own regimes with their own triggers. NIS2 obligations follow the sectors and the member states that transpose it, but its supply chain expectations travel through contracts, which is how they reach suppliers anywhere in the world.