Security incidents at growing businesses rarely involve sophisticated attackers. Far more often the way in is something mundane: a default password that never got changed, a firewall left on factory settings, or an ex-employee's account that nobody remembered to close.
The boring gaps that matter most
Default credentials: routers, cameras, and printers shipped with admin/admin and left that way.
Stale accounts: access that outlives the person or the project it was created for.
Flat networks: one network for everything, so one compromised device can reach it all.
Unpatched systems: updates deferred indefinitely because nobody owns the schedule.
Why they persist
None of these gaps are hard to fix. They persist because they sit between responsibilities — the internet provider installed the router, a contractor fitted the cameras, and nobody is accountable for the whole picture. That's a coordination problem more than a technology problem.
The short version
Before budgeting for advanced tooling, close the boring gaps: change defaults, remove stale access, segment the network, and put someone’s name against patching. That alone rules out most of the incidents we get called in to clean up.
