Shelfware Security
You’re licensed for Microsoft 365 or security features that nobody is actually configuring, tuning, or operating day to day.
CLOSED BY SECURITY ACCOUNTABILITY
✓
MANAGED CYBERSECURITY & MICROSOFT 365 SECURITY
SERVICE FAMILY: DEFEND
Who is responsible for whether your controls actually work?
THE WRITTEN PROMISE
Your security controls actively operated, tuned, and reported on — not just switched on and assumed to work.
The principle: Automated assessment identifies control presence. Validation confirms control effectiveness.
100% Written Scope Boundary
3 Tiers START · CORE · STRATEGIC
Named Senior Ownership
Designated Layer Mandate
Security Accountability
Contract Family
DEFEND
Delivery Model
Outcome-Based · Fixed Tier
Boundary Status
Inclusions & Exclusions Written
Escalation Point
Senior Cape Town Engineers
OPERATIONAL DIAGNOSTIC
Signs nobody owns this yet
Most organisations are already paying for Microsoft security licences that are not being fully operated. Security Accountability closes the gap between buying a tool and owning the posture.
Unreviewed Secure Score
Your Microsoft Secure Score is a static number on a dashboard that nobody reviews, challenges, or acts on.
CLOSED BY SECURITY ACCOUNTABILITY
✓
The Audit Pause
If an auditor, board member, or cyber insurer asked who owns your security posture, the answer would be an uncomfortable pause.
CLOSED BY SECURITY ACCOUNTABILITY
✓
WRITTEN SCOPE ARCHITECTURE
What we own — and what stays separate.
Ambiguity is where IT partnerships break down. We publish both what is included in Security Accountability and what is scoped separately so your team never discovers a gap mid-incident.
[!] WHAT STAYS SEPARATE, AND WHY
Scoped separately: 24/7 human-staffed SOC or MDR monitoring · proactive threat hunting · forensic and legal breach-response retainers · Microsoft licensing.
We include defined operational security actions. We don’t replace a full external 24/7 SOC, and we’ll say so before you need one rather than after.
CONTRACTED INCLUSIONS (5 CORE MANDATES)
FAMILY: DEFEND
- Security posture visibility (Microsoft Secure Score tracking) and structured reporting
- Identity and access hygiene reviews: privileged administrator accounts, legacy authentication blocks, and third-party application consent
- Managed Conditional Access, email & collaboration security, and endpoint hardening (including Attack Surface Reduction rules) CORE & UP
- Alert review, triage, tuning, and defined response actions plus endpoint vulnerability discovery and remediation CORE & UP
- Data loss prevention (DLP), information protection, and POPIA/GDPR technical controls, backed by senior Virtual CISO (vCISO) oversight STRATEGIC
LICENCE-ALIGNED · ZERO PHANTOM CONTROLS
We operate and report only on what you’re licensed for. No phantom controls, and no simulated checkmarks for unconfigured features.
Measured by RiskSight → (quarterly add-on): combines automated posture evaluation with human analyst validation so you can see whether your controls actually work, not only whether they exist.
OPERATIONAL REALITY CHECK
Coverage and ownership are not the same thing.
GOOD TO KNOW // OPERATIONAL BOUNDARY RULE
RiskSight (add-on) provides independent quarterly posture assessment and human validation reporting so boards, auditors, and cyber insurers receive verified proof rather than assumptions.
SERVICE TIER ARCHITECTURE
Security Accountability Tiers
Three unambiguous tiers scaled to your governance and regulatory requirements.
VISIBILITY & REVIEW
START
Visibility, hygiene reviews and risk awareness. Review only.
Includes Secure Score visibility, sign-in & privileged access hygiene reviews, OAuth consent review, and periodic security snapshots. Excludes active remediation or policy changes.
RECOMMENDED STANDARD
RECOMMENDED
CORE
Hands-on management, tuning and defined response across your Microsoft controls.
Conditional Access enforcement, Identity Protection, email & endpoint security hardening (ASR), alert triage & tuning, DLP, sensitivity labels, and POPIA/GDPR technical control execution.
EXECUTIVE GOVERNANCE
STRATEGIC
Advanced operations, continuous improvement and virtual CISO oversight.
Everything in CORE, plus advanced endpoint response, privileged identity governance, continuous security improvement roadmap, and senior vCISO executive risk interpretation.
Our services are deliberately modular. Network, backup, security depth, server and cloud are separate commercial decisions — never bundled implicitly into per-user pricing.
CONNECTED ACCOUNTABILITY LAYERS
What connects with Security Accountability
Every layer is modular by design and integrates cleanly with adjacent operational responsibilities.
QUESTIONS & CLARIFICATIONS
Security Accountability FAQs
Who owns cybersecurity in a business like ours?
In most mid-sized organisations, nobody does — in writing. Licences are bought, tools are switched on, and effectiveness is assumed. Ownership means someone is responsible for whether the controls actually work, not just whether they exist.
How does RiskSight relate to Security Accountability?
RiskSight is our diagnostic assessment product. Automated assessment identifies control presence; validation confirms control effectiveness. Security Accountability is the ongoing operational service that maintains and tunes those controls.
Does this include compliance sign-off for POPIA or GDPR?
We assess and execute the technical security controls required under POPIA and GDPR (such as access control, encryption, DLP, and audit logging). Legal sign-off remains with your designated Information Officer or legal counsel.
NEXT STEP