Talion wins SME Security Solution Award amid cyber shift

Talion has won the SME Security Solution Award at the Computing Security Excellence Awards 2026, a result it said reflects changing expectations in the mid-market cybersecurity sector.

The London-based managed security services provider traces its origins to BAE Systems and focuses on security operations centre services for organisations in regulated and higher-risk environments.

The award comes as smaller and mid-sized businesses face mounting pressure from cyber attacks. Many still rely on security services built around alert volumes and broad monitoring rather than incident response and decision-making. Talion argued that customers are increasingly judging providers on how well they respond under real conditions.

Data cited by Talion points to wider concern about resilience. The World Economic Forum has reported that 93% of cyber leaders and 86% of business leaders believe geopolitical instability is likely to lead to a catastrophic cyber event in the near term.

The International Monetary Fund has also identified cyber risk as a potential threat to financial stability, with incidents rising in frequency and impact across global markets. For smaller firms, which often lack deep in-house security teams, that pressure can be harder to absorb.

UK government figures underline the scale of the problem. According to the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, 50% of UK businesses and more than 70% of medium-sized organisations reported a cyber breach or attack in the past year.

Separate research from the Federation of Small Businesses estimates that SMEs suffer millions of cyber incidents each year. Many leadership teams therefore need outside support not only to detect attacks but also to decide what action to take when systems come under pressure.

Market Shift

Talion said it has built its model around linking day-to-day security operations with board-level oversight. It presented this as an alternative to more traditional managed security services, which can generate large volumes of information without improving detection or response.

Its approach combines operational monitoring with governance and risk visibility for senior executives. The aim, according to Talion, is to help security leaders and boards understand risks, prioritise them and make decisions during incidents.

Keven Knight, chief executive officer of Talion, said the market is moving away from measuring cybersecurity by activity alone. “This recognition reflects a shift the industry can no longer ignore. For too long, cybersecurity has been measured by how much activity it generates rather than how effectively it performs. That’s changing. Organisations are no longer asking how much they can see; they’re asking whether their security will hold when it matters.”

Knight said businesses are struggling less with a lack of security data than with decision-making during incidents. “What we’re seeing across businesses is not a lack of security activity, but a lack of decision clarity when it matters most. The industry has become highly effective at generating information, but far less effective at enabling confident, accountable decisions under pressure. That disconnect is where risk now sits.”

Investor Backing

Talion said its growth has been backed by Mercia Asset Management and Crown Commercial Service. It described that support as part of an effort to address what it sees as a gap in cybersecurity provision for SMEs, where exposure to risk has increased but access to effective services has remained limited.

Knight said the company had not set out to make incremental changes to the traditional managed security services model. “We didn’t set out to refine the traditional MSSP model; we set out to replace it. Because from the outset, it was clear that scaling activity was not the same as delivering effective security. We built our model around how organisations actually experience risk, not how services are packaged. What’s happening now is the market being forced to recognise that distinction.”

He made a similar point about the SME market, arguing that many providers were built for a different operating environment. “This was never about expanding existing models, because those models were not designed for the environments they’re now expected to protect.

We built something fundamentally different: security aligned to how business environments actually operate, where decisions need to be made quickly, with clarity and with accountability. For many SMEs, the challenge isn’t awareness of risk, it’s the ability to act on it with confidence.

This recognition reflects that direction. It recognises a model designed around real-world conditions, not service delivery efficiency, and a standard that is now becoming increasingly difficult for the rest of the market to ignore.”

Rising Expectations

Talion said expectations among mid-market companies are changing faster than many providers are adapting. It argued that security buyers now want clearer accountability and more direct support when decisions need to be made.

Knight said that gap is becoming more visible. “What we’re seeing now is that the expectations of mid-market businesses are evolving faster than many security providers can adapt. For a long time, the industry focused on scaling services, but not necessarily on tailoring them to how organisations actually operate. That gap is becoming increasingly visible.

The reality is that the needs of mid-market companies have outpaced the way most cybersecurity services are designed. Many providers are still optimising for scale and activity, while security leaders are asking for clarity, control, and performance.

We built our model around those real-world conditions from the outset. What’s changing now is not our approach, it’s the market starting to recognise what actually works, and which models can genuinely deliver resilience under pressure.”