Building Securely from Day One
Read on to find out how we took a brand new Defence tech company from zero to operating in a fully secured IT environment in a matter of hours, and Cyber Essentials certification in a week with our MIDAS Micro service.
Case Study - shadowlink
When you’re launching a new business, especially one operating at the cutting edge of Defence technology, there’s no shortage of things demanding your attention:
Developing and proving your technology
Winning early customers
Hiring the right people
Building credibility with partners, investors and regulators
Cyber security should be part of that picture, but for many founders it quickly becomes a distraction rather than an enabler.
That’s exactly the challenge shadowlink came to us with.
The challenge: doing security properly, without slowing down
shadowlink is a brand new business building exciting, innovative dual-use technology in a high-risk, highly regulated environment. From the outset, the team recognised two things:
Cyber security needed to be right from day one, not retrofitted later.
Their environment needed to be aligned to the compliance frameworks they knew they would have to meet as the business grew.
What they didn’t want was a long consultancy engagement, a list of recommendations, or a security operations centre that would simply tell them what went wrong after the fact.
They wanted a secure foundation that would let them focus on building the business, with confidence that security was being handled by experts.
The solution: MIDAS Micro Plus
This was an ideal use case for our newly launched MIDAS Micro Plus service.
At Nova Blue Technologies, our mission is simple: to bring national-defence grade cyber security to organisations that would never normally have access to it.
That means doing things differently.
Rather than telling organisations what they should do, our Cyber Security as a Service model focuses on what actually reduces risk:
Proactively hardening digital systems to make them more difficult to exploit
Implementing strong, proven security baselines
Actively monitoring systems and responding to threats
Security isn’t an audit exercise or an afterthought — it’s something that’s built, maintained and watched continuously.
MIDAS Micro takes that same approach and packages it specifically for startups and micro-businesses:
Secure-by-default Microsoft 365 configurations
Hardened endpoints and device protection
Continuous monitoring by real security professionals
Alignment with Cyber Essentials and future Defence-aligned standards
All delivered at a scale and price point that makes sense for new organisations.
Rapid deployment, real outcomes
For shadowlink, speed mattered.
Within a matter of hours, we deployed a fully secured Microsoft 365 tenant, built on our proven security baselines and hardened against the most common attack paths.
From there, we worked alongside the team to ensure the environment met the requirements for Cyber Essentials, achieving certification in under a week.
This wasn’t about ticking boxes - it was about giving shadowlink a secure, compliant digital estate they could confidently build on from day one.
Onboarding was not only efficient and effective, but the team at Nova Blue were flexible throughout. I was in a different time zone, and the Nova Blue team adjusted their own working patterns to match mine - Nathan, Founder - shadowlink
The result: security handled, focus restored
With the foundations in place, shadowlink could get on with what founders do best:
Developing and testing their technology
Engaging with early customers and partners
Building internal processes and culture
Preparing for future growth, funding and accreditation
All without the constant background worry of whether their data, systems or intellectual property were exposed.
They also gained something less tangible, but just as important: peace of mind.
shadowlink knows that their digital estate is being secured by a team with decades of experience protecting some of the UK’s most sensitive information - and that if something does happen, experts are already in place to respond.
I have so much on my mind as a defence founder. Knowing that the information that shadowlink holds is secure keeps cyber off my to-do list. Nova Blue has an outstanding team. I have been impressed with every interaction, and I am certain I have the right team in my corner - Nathan, Founder - shadowlink
Security that grows with you
MIDAS Micro Plus is designed to grow alongside businesses like shadowlink.
As teams expand, risk profiles change, and compliance requirements increase, customers can seamlessly scale into our wider MIDAS services without having to rebuild their security from scratch.
For startups operating in sensitive or high-assurance sectors, it means cyber security stops being a blocker and starts being an enabler.
Bringing defence-grade security to new businesses
shadowlink’s story is exactly why we built MIDAS Micro and MIDAS Micro Plus.
New businesses shouldn’t have to choose between moving fast and being secure. With the right foundations in place, they can - and should - do both.
If you’re starting a new business and want to build it in a secure, compliant environment from day one, we’d be happy to talk.
