Facing mounting compliance demands, particularly the EU Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA), the firm urgently needed to formalise its security practices and establish a solid incident response plan, to demonstrate cyber resilience to regulators and clients.
Backbone helped reach full compliance with speed and ease, with its vCISO (virtual CISO) advisory engagement and Secure Modern Workplace service.
In a matter of weeks, we implemented a powerful suite of Microsoft 365 security features and clear, comprehensive new policies. To test the new setup, we facilitated a realistic ransomware incident simulation to test our client's readiness. The result exceeded the client's expectations, with the board particularly impressed that we delivered the project well within deadlines, fully within budget, and with no interruption to business as usual.
As a result, our client achieved full regulatory compliance with DORA-aligned procedures, adopted a board-approved incident response plan, and measurably improved their security posture: their Microsoft Secure Score exceeded 60%.
The firm can now confidently demonstrate cyber resilience to regulators and clients.
Our client needed to embed robust security governance quickly to meet strict compliance requirements and prepare for a regulator review. As the business revolves around managing client portfolios, any IT disruption or breach could have serious regulatory repercussions, so the client needed to elevate its security without disrupting core business activities.
Key considerations:
Compliance pressure: New regulations like DORA required enhanced operational resilience. The firm needed to map its controls to standards (e.g., ISO 27001) and ensure board-level oversight of cyber risk.
Board uncertainty: Auditors had noted a gap, as the firm had never conducted a full cyber-incident drill. The board was unsure how an attack, like ransomware, would be handled.
Essential need for rapid improvements: With an impending regulator review, they had a short window to formalise incident management and disaster recovery policies and demonstrate they could respond to “major incidents” as defined by DORA.
The Backbone “intervention team” combined managed services and vCISO consulting, to rapidly embed robust security governance.
Secure Foundations Deployment: In less than a month, we rolled out our Secure Modern Workplace baseline, enabling Microsoft 365 Defender across all endpoints, enforcing Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) and conditional access, and enrolling devices into Intune management for compliance monitoring. This immediately raised their security baseline and provided visibility into risks.
vCISO Advisory & Policy Overhaul: Our vCISO worked with Chief Risk Officer to rewrite and formalise security policies. Together, we developed a new Incident Response SOP (Standard Operating Procedure) and updated their Information Security Policy to align with DORA and UK GDPR mandates. We also set up a quarterly governance process so the board would get regular cyber updates.
Incident Simulation (“Tabletop” Exercise): To ensure the policies weren’t just paper exercises, we facilitated a 2-hour ransomware tabletop drill in June 2025: a fictional breach scenario (“Encrypted Ledger”) which required our client's boards to make real-time decisions, testing their newly created response plan with realistic technical details (e.g. corrupt Bloomberg terminals, leaked data requiring GDPR notification).
Microsoft Technology Integration: Our solution heavily leveraged Microsoft 365’s security stack, using tools like Microsoft Purview audit logs to help map DORA reporting requirements, and using the existing Secure Score to prioritise improvements. We implemented advanced email threat protection and trained the client's IT staff to use the Microsoft 365 compliance center for ongoing risk management. This enabled automation of many security tasks, including logs and reports needed for compliance.
Within one quarter, our client went from having informally managed IT security to full, audit-ready cyber resilience:
Regulatory Confidence: the firm is now fully compliant with DORA and related laws, with proven, documented procedures for major incidents.
Incident Readiness: our client now has a tested incident response capability. If a breach occurs, roles and steps are clear, and the team has muscle memory from the simulation. This reduces panic and uncertainty in a real crisis.
Measurable Security Posture Improvement: we elevated the client's Microsoft Secure Score to ~65%, from an initial ~25%. This quantifiable improvement translates to dozens of security controls implemented (from closing legacy email protocols to enabling device encryption). The immediate effect was a drop in routine security alerts and higher confidence from the IT team that they weren’t missing anything critical.
A strong partnership was forged: Backbone’s engagement didn’t end with the project! Our client continues to use Backbone’s services to ensure robust security foundations for the business: our vCISO joins their quarterly risk meetings, and we conduct an annual cyber stress-test as part of their compliance calendar.
Cybersecurity is now a managed, predictable aspect of their operations. As one board member later noted, they now view it as “business-as-usual risk” rather than an alarming unknown – a direct result of the frameworks and culture we helped instil.