Small Organization Security Review
The organizations that hold an Indiana town together — the congregation, the food pantry, the volunteer fire department, the youth league, the family business — run on a volunteer's laptop, a shared email password, and a router in the closet. They also hold members' names, donors' card numbers, and the treasurer's login to the bank. We look at all of it, plainly, and leave a plan a volunteer can follow.
What we review
- Email and phishingThe organization's email accounts and how they are shared; whether the domain is protected against being spoofed; and a short, honest session with the people who handle money on the “urgent request from the pastor / the president” scam that has taken tens of thousands from small organizations exactly like yours.
- Accounts and accessWho can get into the bank, the payment processor, the website, the social accounts, the donor database — and whether the person who left two years ago still can. Two-factor turned on; passwords no longer on a sticky note; a written list of what exists.
- Backups and ransomware readinessWhether the membership list, the accounts and the years of records exist in more than one place, whether that copy would survive a bad click, and whether anyone has ever tried restoring from it.
- The network and Wi‑FiThe router and its defaults; the public Wi‑Fi separated from the office; the printer, the thermostat and the streaming box that are quietly on the same network as the treasurer's laptop.
- The data you holdWhat personal and payment information you keep, where, and whether you need to; the simple practices that keep a small organization out of the kind of breach it cannot afford.
- The written planFindings in order of importance, what we fixed on the spot, and what to do next — written for the next volunteer, not for a technician.
Free for Indiana nonprofits and houses of worship
As our schedule allows, and we say yes as often as we can. Small businesses and clubs are quoted a flat fee in writing before we begin. If your organization does not quite fit a category and cost is a barrier, write to us anyway.
Common questions
How long does it take?
Half a day on site for a typical small organization, or two remote sessions. We ask that the people who hold the passwords — often the treasurer and whoever runs the website — be present. If nobody is sure who holds what, that is finding number one, and it is a common one.
We are tiny. Is this really for us?
Especially. Large organizations have staff for this; small ones have nobody, and the criminals know it. Most of what we do for a twenty-member club takes an afternoon and prevents the single bad day that would end it.
Will you run a session for our members or congregation?
Gladly — a plain-language talk on spotting scams and locking down accounts, for a senior group, a congregation, a library or a club, free as our schedule allows. See Free help.