Supporting Essential Services Through Cyber Resilience
Salix Homes is an award-winning, not-for-profit housing association providing social and affordable housing across Salford, Greater Manchester.
With more than 8,000 homes under management and over 300 employees, the organisation plays an important role in supporting local communities, maintaining homes and delivering essential services to residents.
Technology underpins much of this work, from managing properties and coordinating repairs to supporting employees, handling sensitive information and communicating with residents.
For an organisation with such a strong community focus, cyber resilience is about more than protecting systems and data. It is about ensuring the continuity of essential services, maintaining residents’ trust and enabling employees to deliver the support that communities rely upon.
As technology becomes increasingly central to housing services, Salix Homes recognises the importance of maintaining an effective, adaptable and proactive approach to cyber security.
8,000+
Homes under management
300+
Employees
Salford
Greater Manchester
The Challenge: Strengthening Security While Supporting Essential Services
The relationship between Salix Homes and Amicis Group began following a cyber security audit that identified an opportunity to strengthen the organisation’s threat detection and response capabilities.
Salix Homes required a Managed Detection & Response (MDR) service that could provide greater visibility across its technology environment, identify potentially malicious activity and bring additional specialist security expertise alongside its existing internal team.
However, the challenge extended beyond the introduction of another security technology.
Like many organisations delivering essential public-facing services, Salix Homes needed to balance effective cyber protection with the practical demands of running a complex, service-led organisation.
Its technology environment needed to remain secure and resilient while supporting operational improvements, new projects and the evolving needs of employees and residents.
This required an approach to security that considered not only the technology itself, but also the people using it, the processes supporting it and the organisation’s ability to respond effectively when incidents occur.
Amicis recognised that the original MDR requirement represented an opportunity to establish a broader, longer-term relationship focused on strengthening security maturity and supporting wider business objectives.
Amicis Group's Approach: From Managed Security to Strategic Partnership
Amicis Group initially worked with Salix Homes to introduce Managed Detection & Response, providing specialist monitoring, investigation and response capability to strengthen its existing cyber security arrangements.
Rather than treating MDR as an isolated technical deployment, Amicis focused on understanding Salix Homes’ wider operating environment, internal capabilities and longer-term security priorities.
This partnership-led approach created the foundation for an evolving relationship.
As new requirements emerged, Salix Homes increasingly engaged Amicis for additional technical expertise, security architecture, consultancy, professional services and employee awareness initiatives.
Today, the relationship brings together several complementary disciplines, with Amicis providing specialist resources and capabilities that work alongside Salix Homes’ internal team.
Managed Detection & Response
Managed Detection & Response formed the foundation of the original engagement.
Amicis provides specialist security monitoring, investigation and response capabilities designed to identify suspicious activity, investigate potential threats and support an appropriate response.
By combining advanced security technology with experienced security professionals, the service helps Salix Homes maintain visibility of potential malicious activity and access the expertise needed to understand and manage emerging threats.
The focus extends beyond identifying security events. It is about providing a managed capability that supports the organisation’s wider approach to cyber risk and operational resilience.
Security Architecture and Technical Consultancy
As the partnership developed, Amicis began providing specialist consultancy across wider security and technology requirements.
Security architecture support helps Salix Homes consider how security controls, technologies and processes should work together as its environment evolves.
This includes assessing existing arrangements, advising on opportunities for improvement and helping ensure that security considerations form part of future technology decisions.
Through access to experienced security architects and consultants, Salix Homes can draw upon additional specialist expertise without needing to maintain every capability internally.
This approach supports more informed technical decision-making and helps embed security into the design and development of the organisation’s technology environment.
Supporting Technology Transformation
Cyber security must enable business change rather than become an obstacle to it.
Amicis has provided specialist technical resources to support significant data migration activity within Salix Homes, bringing additional expertise to complex technology projects.
Such projects require careful consideration of data integrity, access, security controls and operational continuity.
By supporting Salix Homes with professional services and technical consultancy, Amicis helps bring security considerations into wider technology transformation activities.
This demonstrates how the relationship extends beyond managed threat detection to support the organisation’s broader operational and technology objectives.
Cyber Security Awareness and Human Risk
Technology alone cannot address every cyber security threat.
Employees play a critical role in recognising suspicious activity, handling information securely and protecting the organisation against increasingly sophisticated attacks.
Amicis supports Salix Homes through phishing simulations and cyber security awareness programmes designed to reinforce secure working practices.
Simulated phishing campaigns provide insight into employee responses to realistic threats, helping identify areas where further awareness and education may be beneficial.
Supporting training programmes help employees understand current cyber risks, recognise common attack techniques and appreciate their role in protecting the organisation and its residents.
The objective is to build awareness into everyday working practices, encouraging a security-conscious culture without unnecessarily restricting how employees work.
Executive Cyber Incident Preparedness
A significant cyber incident is not simply an IT issue. It can create operational, financial, reputational and regulatory challenges that require decisions from across an organisation’s leadership team.
Recognising this, Amicis has delivered executive cyber incident tabletop exercises with Salix Homes’ Senior Leadership Team.
These exercises provide a controlled environment in which senior stakeholders can explore realistic cyber incident scenarios, consider their responsibilities and examine how the organisation would coordinate its response.
They encourage discussion around communication, escalation, decision-making, service continuity and the wider business implications of a significant security event.
By bringing cyber resilience into executive-level conversations, Amicis helps Salix Homes consider preparedness beyond the technical response, strengthening the connection between cyber security, organisational governance and business continuity.
FROM MANAGED SECURITY TO STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIP
The Business Value: A Coordinated Approach to Cyber Resilience
The strength of the relationship lies in bringing together capabilities that are often addressed independently.
Managed threat detection, security architecture, employee awareness, executive preparedness and technology consultancy each contribute to a different aspect of cyber resilience.
By combining these disciplines through an ongoing partnership, Salix Homes can take a more coordinated approach to protecting its operations, employees, residents and information.
Proactive Threat Detection and Response
Managed security capabilities provide additional visibility of potential cyber threats and access to specialist investigation and response expertise.
Access to Specialist Expertise When Required
Amicis provides additional consultancy, security architecture and technical resources to complement Salix Homes’ internal capabilities and support emerging requirements.
Security Embedded into Technology Change
Architecture guidance and professional services help ensure security considerations are incorporated into wider technology projects and transformation activities.
A Stronger Security-Aware Culture
Phishing simulations and employee awareness programmes help identify potential human risk and reinforce secure behaviours across the organisation.
Greater Executive Awareness and Preparedness
Tabletop exercises help senior leaders consider their responsibilities and the decisions required during a significant cyber incident, supporting more informed organisational preparedness.
A Broader Approach to Business Resilience
By connecting technical security, people, processes and leadership, the engagement supports Salix Homes’ ability to manage cyber risk while maintaining its focus on delivering essential housing services.
The Outcome: Cyber Security That Supports the Organisation's Purpose
For Salix Homes, effective cyber security is an important part of delivering reliable services to residents, protecting sensitive information and supporting the organisation’s long-term objectives.
The relationship with Amicis Group demonstrates how an initial investment in managed threat detection can become the foundation for a more comprehensive approach to cyber resilience.
By combining managed security, specialist consultancy, security architecture, employee awareness and executive preparedness, Amicis supports Salix Homes in addressing cyber risk across multiple levels of the organisation.
The partnership continues to evolve as new requirements emerge, providing access to the expertise and flexibility needed to support both ongoing security operations and wider technology change.
For Amicis Group, the relationship reflects a fundamental principle: effective cyber security is not simply about deploying technology or responding to threats.
It is about understanding the organisation, supporting its people and embedding security into the decisions, processes and services that matter most.
For Salix Homes, that means helping protect the technology and information underpinning the essential services delivered to thousands of residents across Salford.
READY TO MOVE FORWARD?
Build a Stronger Approach to Cyber Resilience
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