HNSTY= HONESTY

Independent cybersecurity advice for organisations who'd rather hear what's actually wrong than what's easiest to sell.

We work fractional, one-off, or ongoing — vCISO leadership, cloud security, and standalone assessments for teams that don't need a full security department, just a straight answer from one.

NO RETAINER REQUIRED
Why HNSTY

Most security firms redact the bad news. We don't.

A lot of cybersecurity advice is written to justify a bigger contract: inflated risk ratings, tools you don't need, findings padded to look worse than they are. We report what we actually find, size the fix to your budget, and tell you plainly when you don't need us at all.

That's the whole pitch. No tactics, no upsells — just an honest read on where you stand and what to do about it.

Engage us for one project, one season, or one ongoing role — whichever fits.

What we do
FILE / VCISO

Fractional CISO

Board-ready security leadership without a full-time hire. Strategy, risk register, and vendor oversight, billed for the time you actually need.

ONGOING
FILE / CLOUD

Cloud security

Configuration reviews and architecture hardening across AWS, Azure, and GCP — plain-English findings, not a 200-page scanner export.

ONGOING OR FIXED-SCOPE
FILE / SINGLE

One-off engagements

Assessments, penetration tests, incident response, and second opinions on someone else's report. Booked as a single project, no retainer.

FIXED-FEE
FILE / PUBLIC

Government & contractor readiness

Baseline compliance support (NIST 800-171, CMMC-aligned practices) sized for local agencies and small contractors, not enterprise budgets.

FIXED-FEE OR ONGOING
How an engagement runs

Three steps. No stage exists to sell you the next one.

01 — ASSESS

We look

A scoped review of the systems, controls, or claims in question — sized to the engagement, not padded to look impressive.

02 — ADVISE

We report, plainly

Findings ranked by actual risk, written for the person who has to act on them, with the fix that costs the least to be safe.

03 — ACT

We help you close it, or step back

Stay on to implement the fix, or hand the report to your own team. Either way, the engagement ends when the work is done.

Who we serve

We work with organisations that don't have — or don't need — an internal security team.

SMB

Small and mid-sized businesses that need real security posture without hiring a department for it.

LOCAL GOV

Local government and public agencies working with limited budgets but real obligations to residents and regulators.

CONTRACTORS

Vendors and contractors who need to demonstrate security readiness to bid on or keep public-sector work.

ANYONE ELSE

If your last security review left you more confused than informed, that's reason enough to talk to us.

About HNSTY

Built on the idea that good security advice shouldn't need decoding.

HNSTY was started to be the consultancy we'd want to hire: direct about risk, upfront about cost, and comfortable saying "you're fine" when that's the honest answer.

Plain-English reports. Every finding is written so the person who has to act on it actually can.

Fixed-fee options. You know the cost before the work starts, on one-off engagements.

Nothing to upsell. We don't resell tools or software, so a recommendation is just a recommendation.

Right-sized scope. Advice calibrated to your actual budget and risk, not a template built for enterprise.

Get in touch

Tell us what's going on. We'll give you a straight read.

No obligation, no sales script — if the honest answer is "you don't need us," we'll say so.

Or reach us directly at hello@hnsty.com