For many Welsh charities and community interest companies, digital work happens everywhere. Staff and volunteers blend shared laptops, personal phones, cloud email and online banking to deliver services and keep funds moving. That mix is efficient, yet it creates a wider set of weak spots than a single office network ever did.
This 1-day list is built for small teams without a full time IT lead. It focuses on identity, email, updates and recovery, because that is where most attacks begin and, of course, where the impact lands. Phishing has grown in volume and realism, and attackers now reuse stolen credentials across cloud tools at speed. The goal is to make the usual tricks fail more often and to restore access quickly when a mistake slips through.
Make a proxy work for you, not against you
A UK proxy can be a practical safety layer when you want one clear choke point for small teams on mixed devices. In simple terms, a proxy sits between your laptops and the wider internet so that web requests leave through a single, known UK address and replies come back the same way. That single address lets you apply one set of safe browsing rules, restrict logins for admin portals to a trusted source, and record what leaves the network without touching every device.
Used well, it reduces noise and tightens control. First, you can allow signing in to cloud admin pages only from the proxy’s static UK address. That blocks random attempts from elsewhere and makes approval by trustees easier to understand. Second, category filters on the proxy cut access to domains linked to malware and impersonation, which is where many staff are caught out when a fake invoice or shared document arrives. Third, central logs give you a short list to review after hours. You can spot unusual access to donation pages or banking tools without digging through each device.
Mechanically, the proxy looks at DNS requests and web traffic, checks your rules, and then connects on your behalf. Decide which devices must use it, set a router rule or device profile, and keep the scope narrow. Focus on staff and trustee devices that handle email, finance or donor data. Make it part of a small stack that works well in small charities.
Pair the proxy with multi factor authentication on every cloud account, a password manager so each key login is unique, and full disk encryption on laptops and phones. That set blocks many drive-by threats and reduces the harm of a single stolen password.
The 1-day fix list, applied to real risks
The national picture shows why a short list works. In the latest survey, three in ten UK charities identified a breach or attack in the last year, and among those that suffered a cyber crime, phishing accounted for 95 percent. The report estimates around 453,000 cyber crimes against UK charities in the past 12 months and notes that only about a third of charities use two factor authentication by default. These findings point to simple, high yield moves. Turn on multi factor authentication for email and banking first, then push automatic updates across devices, then ensure you can restore files quickly from versioned cloud backups. These three steps remove a large share of the risk you actually face day to day.
Practical help is close to home. Welsh voluntary bodies can tap into guidance and signposting through Wales Council for Voluntary Action, which links to police-led cyber resilience support across the country. This is useful for small teams that want a quick health check and a path to affordable advice without adding new software. It also gives trustees a neutral source to reference when setting policy and asking for simple monthly checks on the basics.
Key Takeaways
- Welsh charities and CICs are common targets for online scams and need a basic cyber plan.
- Use a UK proxy to test website access, protect admin logins, and spot geo-based risks.
- Turn on MFA, update devices, and control who can access sensitive files.
- Train staff to spot phishing so one bad click doesn’t shut the whole group down.
