Inspired by the Not Just Numbers / HSBC / NEBRC event in Leeds,
By Jonny Ross, Fractional CMO & Founder of Fleek Marketing

Today I joined a room of business owners in Leeds for an event hosted by Not Just Numbers and HSBC, with the North East Business Resilience Centre (NEBRC) leading the conversation. And it was a timely one.

Cybercrime is no longer a “tech issue”.
It’s a business issue, a people issue, and crucially, a marketing issue.

Because if you lose customer trust, you lose visibility, leads, and reputation faster than any Google algorithm update. And once the damage is done, no amount of SEO can clean that up overnight.

43% of SMEs suffered a cyber-attack last year — but most still think they’re “not a target”

Detective Inspector Steve Leach opened with a number that landed heavily:

43% of businesses experienced some form of cyber-attack in the last 12 months.

Not enterprise.
Not government.
Businesses like ours. Small and medium-sized organisations — the backbone of the UK economy.

And yet many SMEs still tell themselves:

• “We’re too small for hackers to care about.”
• “We’ve got nothing worth stealing.”
• “IT handles that stuff.”

But as Steve pointed out, cybercrime isn’t glamorous. Hackers aren’t targeting you because you’re special — they’re targeting you because you’re easy.

Cybercrime today is simply modern theft, happening at scale.

Why this matters for marketing (and why I’m writing about it)

For years I’ve talked about the importance of visibility, brand authority, websites you can be proud of, and content that builds trust.

But none of that matters if:

• your website goes offline for a week
• your customer data is leaked
• your email gets hijacked
• your team clicks on a phishing link
• your Google Business Profile gets compromised
• your social accounts are taken over

Just one breach can undo years of brand-building.

Cybersecurity is now part of customer experience — and therefore part of marketing.
A breach can cost you money, but it can also cost you credibility.

And once trust is broken, it’s incredibly hard to rebuild.

The session’s biggest takeaways (and what SMEs should actually do about them)

1. Passwords are still the biggest weakness

85% of attacks start with phishing, and weak or reused passwords make it easy for criminals to get in.

Steve shared a tool I’d recommend to every SME:
👉 HaveIBeenPwned.com — check if your email/passwords have been leaked.

He also reinforced the value of three random words passwords — something memorable but long enough to make cracking them nearly impossible.

Add multi-factor authentication (MFA) to that, and you’ve just shut the front door to most attacks.

2. Public Wi-Fi is a playground for hackers

That “Costa WiFi” you think you’re connected to?
It might actually be a hacker in the corner with a £50 device pretending to be Costa.

If your team works remotely — cafés, co-working spaces, trains — you must have VPN protection or enforce use of 4G/5G for anything sensitive.

3. Backups are only useful if you’ve tested them

This one hit home.
So many businesses think their site or CRM or files are backed up. Until they need them.

If you don’t test your recovery process, you don’t have a backup — you have a hope.

4. Cybersecurity starts with people, not software

One line of Steve’s stuck with me:

“Your strongest asset — and your biggest weakness — is people.”

Tools help, but human behaviour is the differentiator.

As someone who works with organisations to build digital capability, this resonated. Training your team is more important than installing another piece of software.

Free support SMEs can tap into today

This wasn’t a sales event — and that’s what made it powerful.
The NEBRC offer completely free membership for businesses of any size.

That includes:

• threat intelligence
• awareness training
• basic cyber assessments
• guidance and support

This isn’t “nice to have”.
It’s business hygiene — like insurance, HR, or accounting.

I’d recommend every SME joins.

Where cybersecurity meets marketing

Here’s the truth: cyber protection isn’t just IT.

It’s brand protection.
It’s reputation management.
It’s customer trust.
It’s business continuity.
It’s protecting the story you’ve worked so hard to build.

As a Fractional CMO, this is where my worlds overlap:

• Your SEO can drop overnight if your site is hacked.
• Your Google rankings tank if your site gets blacklisted.
• Your email deliverability dies if your domain is compromised.
• Your social reach disappears if accounts are taken over.
• Your pipeline stops if your CRM gets locked or ransomed.
• Your team loses confidence if they don’t feel secure.

Cybersecurity and marketing are now interlinked.
One protects the other.

My advice to SMEs after today’s event

Here’s where I’d start — quickly, simply, without overwhelm:

✔ Step 1: Audit your risk

Use the free NCSC toolkit
Spend 10 minutes.
You’ll be shocked what it surfaces.

✔ Step 2: Get the basics right

• Strong, unique passwords
• Multi-factor authentication
• VPN for remote workers
• Regular software updates
• Staff training on phishing

Simple, human-proof steps.

✔ Step 3: Protect your marketing assets

Your website.
Your domain.
Your analytics.
Your CRM.
Your social channels.

These are the heartbeat of your visibility. Make sure you have:

• admin access
• recovery emails
• shared password management (properly managed!)
• backup plans

✔ Step 4: Work with partners who take cybersecurity seriously

Your web agency.
Your IT team.
Your hosting provider.
Your cloud platforms.
Your digital ecosystem is only as strong as its weakest link.

At Fleek, we bake cyber resilience into our website builds, SEO strategies, and content systems — because protecting your marketing isn’t optional anymore.

Final thought: cyber protection is business protection

Today wasn’t about fear.
It was about awareness.

And it reinforced something I’ve always believed:

Businesses grow best when they understand their risks, tell their story clearly, and build systems that work for them — not against them.

If you want support in reviewing the digital side of your cyber risk, or you want your website, content, SEO or internal processes to be more resilient, I’m here to help.

This is what modern marketing is.
It’s not just visibility — it’s protection, credibility, and confidence.