At the recent CyberSecure Summit in Sydney, hosted by Microsoft and Dicker Data, David Reid, Head of Operations at Lanrex, addressed key challenges businesses face in cybersecurity. Reid pointed out that while many companies have solid security measures, they often lack a clear strategy to ensure ongoing adoption and monitoring.
“We see a big gap with cohesive security strategy across clients,” Reid said. “Clients have a very good posture towards security, but don’t necessarily put the strategy in place around how that security is adopted. We also see there’s a lack of continuous monitoring and the ability to genuinely identify and respond to emerging threats. There’s often a single point of failure within organisations.”
To tackle this, Lanrex, with over 30 years of experience and a team of 40 serving Australia and New Zealand, offers a continuous improvement program. This includes a virtual CIO and CISO, and supports the implementation of CIS Critical Security Controls Version 8, aligned with Microsoft standards.
Lanrex provides tiered solutions suited for businesses of all sizes. The first tier features Microsoft Defender for servers, endpoints, and Office 365, alongside Microsoft 365 Business Premium. This tier enforces multi-factor authentication (MFA), geo-location blocks, app whitelisting, and conditional access. It also includes PII security training, phishing campaigns, dark web scanning, patch management, and annual security assessments.
The second tier adds stronger alerting and remediation for threats in Office 365 tools like SharePoint, Teams, and OneDrive, as well as Azure AD. It introduces encryption policies, compliance for trusted network endpoints, and helps businesses maintain a Microsoft Secure Score above 50%.
Lanrex’s strong partnership with Microsoft bolsters its solutions. Microsoft has named Lanrex an official Solutions Partner in Infrastructure Azure and Modern Work. Karen Negus, Microsoft’s Director SMB Security, Asia, highlighted Microsoft’s position as a leader in global security.
“Security is embedded in every part of our business. With our global network reach, we can collect more data and spot more attempted breaches than probably any other organisation,” Negus said. She stressed the importance of a zero-trust approach: “assume a breach, explicitly verify every user and device, and grant the least privilege required.”
Negus noted that SMBs often handle security in silos, unlike attackers who target the entire attack chain. “Security has to be end-to-end,” she said. Microsoft continues to refine its offerings to provide complete solutions for SMBs.
In March, Microsoft expanded its security options for small businesses. Its 365 E5 Security add-on is now available for Microsoft 365 Business Premium users. The add-on offers advanced features like real-time risk-based conditional access, identity protection through Microsoft Entra ID Plan 2, and Extended Detection and Response (XDR) for better incident visibility.
The package also strengthens device security with Defender for Endpoint Plan 2, which includes advanced threat hunting and IoT device protection. Email and collaboration tools benefit from Defender for Office 365 Plan 2, with phishing simulation and automated response capabilities. Defender for Cloud Apps helps IT teams manage shadow IT and protect against SaaS-based attacks.
Microsoft says the E5 Security add-on can save businesses up to 57% compared to purchasing individual tools, making enterprise-level cybersecurity more affordable for SMBs.
