Getting a ‘base’ for your business is an important first step in establishing it and giving it every opportunity to grow.
Donegal is blessed with a number of innovation centres which house and nurture many of these up and coming businesses.
A breach in digital security for any company can mean losing money, time and probably most importantly loss of reputation and trust.
Secora Consulting, located at The BASE, Stranorlar provides essential cyber-security for companies across websites, internal systems, e-commerce and digital storage.
Owners Phillip Close, originally from Westmeath and Phil Graham, Liverpool, have vast amounts of experience in securing high-risk sensitive environments in Ireland and the UK.
In fact, they were both working for a major organisation in Dublin, when they realised there was a gap in the market to provide digital security on a more evolutionary basis, designed around the needs of individual companies.
That was nearly 3 years ago, and the company is growing, recruiting 2 new people next year, despite Covid-19.
What is different about Secora is that their solutions are based on each client’s specific needs which comes from a rigorous process, designed to identify the unique threats for each company.
“Our goal is the long-term success of our clients,’ explains Phillip, ‘We want to understand our clients’ businesses, how they operate and what they see as perceived risks. Then we look at how these risks translate to the real world and consider how attackers would relate to that company.’
Speaking about the Secora approach Phil explains, ‘We invested 6 months in developing methodologies which can offer robust security for our clients. As a result, we can adapt, evolve and anticipate digital threats unique to them. We don’t simply meet Government regulations; we partner with our clients so that we can help protect them both today and tomorrow.”
Phillip continues, “We serve customers mainly in the digital space, servers, web applications and internal systems. We essentially try to ‘break in’ to these systems and then expose any vulnerabilities and provide solutions on how to reduce risk in the future.”
His advice, “Better to do security testing so that your product or business is secure from the start, unfortunately sometimes companies don’t call us until there is a problem’. Secora provide testing in; Baseline Assessment, Penetration Testing, Adversary Simulation and Incident Response. This is a heavily regulated industry and the owners are accredited in the UK and Ireland by CREST and OSCP.
“The BASE was a good move for us,’ Phil explains. ‘Having a secure office is important in our line of work we also need to have room to expand. The facilities are excellent and there’s a genuine culture of generosity and desire to see people succeed here. The staff are extremely helpful and we’ve been able to connect with other businesses too. If anyone is thinking of setting up a business, we are happy to share what we’ve learned.”
Networking is a natural occurrence at The BASE, Jennifer a graphic designer (Jennifer-K Design) uses the co-working facility and is collaborating on projects for both Secora and Maria Gallo, KITE (Keep In Touch Education).
So why Donegal? Secora Consulting are unanimous, ‘We’ve found operating from Donegal and the BASE to be a real bonus. The broadband, networks and the support are first class here, much better than in Dublin. If you are experienced, it really doesn’t matter where you are. Technology means you’re connected. Just make sure that your business has invested in a secure network. We can help there.’
Go to info@secoraconsulting.com or call +353-1-517-6200. To find out more about THE BASE office and co-working space, contact leah@thebaseenterprise.ie or +353 87 607 5555.
There is a network of innovation centres across Donegal who offer an extraordinarily high standard of co-working spaces equipped with exceptional communications tech and office support in Letterkenny, Stranorlar, Inishowen and Gweedore.
The following are some really useful numbers if you wish to check out any of the innovation centres dotted across the county – Colab Patsy 074 9186703 patrick.donaghy@lyit.ie , Inishowen Digital Hub 087 7144033 kevinmcshane@inishowendigitalhub.com, gteic at Údarás an Gaeltachta 087 2313504 gaothDohbair@gteic.ie
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