Aristos Partnership | Cyber Resilience Consultancy
UK Cyber Resilience Consultancy — Since 2016

Cyber resilience
starts at
Board level.

Aristos Partnership works directly with Boards, CISOs, and executive teams to embed genuine cyber resilience into strategic decision-making — translating complex risk into clear, confident leadership action.

OBE FCMI FBCS FCIIS NCSC Aligned Cyber Essentials
Book a Discovery Call Our Services
At a Glance
25+
Years combined experience in cyber resilience
8
Specialist sectors served across UK & internationally
100+
Boards and executive teams engaged
2016
Founded on the principle that resilience starts at the top
Government • Financial Services • Maritime • Healthcare • Critical Infrastructure
Why Aristos Partnership

Board-level expertise.
Business-led outcomes.

We speak Board language

We translate complex technical risk into the language of strategy, governance, and business continuity — so your Board can make informed decisions, not just receive briefings.

Embedded cultural change

We embed human risk management across the organisation, delivering lasting cultural change rather than one-off training exercises.

Threat-led, not box-ticking

We identify the most likely and highest-impact threats facing your organisation — then build a proportionate, practical resilience posture your leadership team can own and act upon.

Areas of Practice

Eight Specialist Practice Areas

From Board-level cyber strategy to hands-on resilience exercises — our practice is built around the challenges that matter most to leadership teams.

Core Service
01

Cyber Resilience Exercising

Tabletop and scenario-based exercises for Boards and SLTs. We design, facilitate, and debrief exercises that reveal real gaps and build genuine confidence — not just tick a compliance box.

Enquire about exercising →
Core Service
02

Human Risk Management

Your people are your greatest resilience asset — and your most targeted vulnerability. We design programmes that build a genuine security culture, not just compliance awareness.

Discuss human risk →
Core Service
03

Maritime Cyber Resilience

Specialist maritime cyber advisory aligned to IMO Maritime Cyber Risk Management guidelines, MCA requirements, and the unique threat profile of the maritime environment.

Maritime advisory →
Core Service
04

Board-Level Cyber Advisory

Translating complex cyber risk into clear board-level language. We help directors understand their responsibilities, ask the right questions, and make informed risk decisions.

Board advisory →
Additional Service
05

Threat-Led Cyber Resilience

Intelligence-driven assessments that identify your most credible threats and map them directly to your critical business services and IT infrastructure.

Learn more →
Additional Service
06

Data Protection & Privacy

GDPR, NIS2, and sector-specific data governance advisory that aligns your data protection posture with operational reality and Board risk appetite.

Learn more →
Additional Service
07

Learning & Organisational Development

Bespoke cyber resilience training, awareness campaigns, and leadership development programmes built around your organisation’s culture and risk profile.

Learn more →
Additional Service
08

Liability & Risk Advisory

Director-level guidance on personal liability, regulatory obligations, and the governance frameworks needed to demonstrate duty of care under FCA, PRA, and NIS2.

Learn more →

Interested to know more about how our services can help you? Speak to our experts and find out how Aristos Partnership can strengthen your cyber resilience.

Contact Us
Our Approach

Business-Led Approach to Cyber Resilience

We embed ourselves in your organisation to understand what actually matters — then help you protect it.

“The most important single factor in Cyber resilience is the user.”
Mike Hawthorne OBE FCMI FBCS — Partner, Aristos Partnership
1

Understand your business

We start by understanding your critical business processes, the IT systems that underpin them, and the risks your Board genuinely cares about.

2

Identify what matters most

Working with both business and IT leads, we identify where resilience investment will have the greatest impact on your ability to continue operating under pressure.

3

Build genuine resilience

We design and deliver interventions that embed resilience into your organisation — from exercising and training to governance frameworks and advisory support.

4

Sustain and improve

Cyber resilience is not a project with an end date. We work with clients on an ongoing basis to ensure their resilience evolves as threats and business needs change.

Sectors We Serve

Sector expertise that makes a difference

We understand that cyber risk looks different in every sector. Our team brings deep experience across eight critical areas.

🏦

Financial Services

FCA, PRA, DORA & operational resilience requirements for regulated firms.

🚢

Maritime & Ports

IMO, BIMCO & MCA-aligned cyber resilience for vessel operators & ports.

🏥

Healthcare

Clinical continuity, patient data protection & NHS cyber resilience frameworks.

⚡

Critical Infrastructure

NIS2-compliant resilience programmes for CNI operators across all sectors.

🏛️

Public Sector

Central & local government cyber resilience, from Cabinet Office frameworks to front-line services.

🚆

Rail & Transport

Operational technology security, safety-critical systems & transport resilience.

⚖️

Legal & Professional Services

Client data governance, SRA obligations, & firm-wide cyber resilience strategy.

🎓

Education

University & school cyber resilience, research data protection & staff awareness.

Our Team

Practitioners, not theorists.

Every engagement is led by a senior partner with direct Board-level experience. You work with us, not a junior consultant.

MH

Mike Hawthorne

Partner — Director Strategy & Human Risk
OBE FCMI FBCS FCIIS

Mike brings over 25 years of experience in cyber resilience across government and the private sector. He has led cyber resilience programmes for FTSE 250 organisations, regulated financial institutions, and critical national infrastructure operators. His human risk methodology is built on behavioural science and practical change management, not compliance tick-boxes. Mike has advised Boards on cyber risk under FCA, PRA, and NIS2 frameworks and is a recognised thought leader in Board-level cyber governance.

PJ

Penny Jackson

Director Strategy & Human Risk
FCIIS MSc

Penny leads Aristos Partnership’s human risk and organisational resilience practice. With a background spanning intelligence, behavioural change, and executive advisory, she specialises in helping organisations understand the human dimensions of cyber risk — building programmes that change how people think and behave under pressure, not just what they know. Penny has delivered engagements for regulated firms, public sector bodies, and international maritime operators.

Client Feedback

What our clients say.

I have received very positive feedback from the team. The training session was not only insightful in terms of dealing with a cyber attack but also provided valuable strategies for handling any crisis. Your recommendations will be discussed with the communications team as we work on developing our strategy.
Chief Executive — Local Government Borough Council
Aristos Partnership brought a level of Board-level credibility and practical experience that we hadn’t encountered before. The exercise exposed gaps we didn’t know we had — and gave our leadership team the confidence to act on them.
Chief Information Security Officer — Financial Services
Insights

Thinking from the front line.

Practical perspectives on cyber resilience, Board governance, and human risk — from practitioners who have seen it from the inside.

Board & Executive Briefing
16 March 2026
Why Cyber Resilience Starts With the Board, Not the IT Department
Too many organisations treat cyber security as a technology problem delegated to the IT function. This is a governance failure — and regulators are increasingly saying so. Here is what genuine Board-level cyber resilience looks like in practice.
Read article →
Human Risk
February 2026
The Human Factor: Why Annual Awareness Training Is Not Enough
Phishing simulation completion rates and e-learning pass scores feel like progress. But most organisations respond with annual awareness training that does nothing to change how people actually behave under pressure.
Read article →
Board & Executive Briefing

Why Cyber Resilience Starts With the Board, Not the IT Department

16 March 2026 — Aristos Partnership

Too many organisations treat cyber security as a technology problem. They delegate it to the IT function, buy a firewall, run a phishing simulation, and consider the job done. This is not cyber resilience. It is, at best, a compliance posture. At worst, it is a governance failure waiting to be exposed.

The regulatory shift is already here

Under FCA, PRA, and NIS2 frameworks, Boards are now personally accountable for operational resilience — including cyber resilience. The PRA's 2021 Operational Resilience Policy Statement made clear that firms must be able to prevent disruption, adapt systems to continue delivering services, return to normal operations promptly, and learn from incidents. These are not IT objectives. They are Board-level governance obligations.

What Board-level cyber resilience actually looks like

Genuine Board-level cyber resilience means directors can answer four questions confidently: What are our most critical business processes? What happens to those processes if a cyber incident occurs? What is our tolerance for disruption? And how do we know our plans actually work? Most Boards cannot answer all four. The exercising work we do with clients is designed specifically to surface these gaps — safely, before a real incident forces the issue.

The case for exercising

A well-designed tabletop exercise does three things that no policy document or awareness training can achieve. It puts the right people in the room. It forces real decisions under simulated pressure. And it reveals — in a controlled environment — where plans break down, where roles are unclear, and where confidence is misplaced. The debrief is where the real learning happens.

Human Risk

The Human Factor: Why Annual Awareness Training Is Not Enough

February 2026 — Aristos Partnership

Ask most CISOs how they manage human risk and they will describe a programme built on annual e-learning modules, phishing simulations, and compliance completion rates. These metrics create the impression of progress. They do not create resilient behaviour.

The behaviour gap

The gap between knowing the right thing to do and doing it under pressure is where most security incidents begin. An employee who has completed their annual phishing awareness training can still click a link when it arrives at 4:55pm on a Friday with a convincing sender name and a plausible pretext. Knowledge does not reliably predict behaviour under stress. Genuine resilience programmes are built on behavioural science, not compliance metrics.

What effective human risk management looks like

At Aristos Partnership, our human risk programmes start with an assessment of the real behavioural risk landscape — not a generic threat list. We work with organisations to understand which behaviours, in which functions, at which points in operational processes, create the greatest exposure. We then design interventions that target those specific risks, using approaches grounded in change management and behavioural psychology rather than information delivery.

The cultural dimension

Lasting change requires cultural change. That means leadership behaviour, not just staff training. When a Board takes cyber resilience seriously — when it is discussed at every Board meeting, when directors ask informed questions, when the tone from the top is visible and consistent — the whole organisation's security culture shifts. This is why we work at Board level and operational level simultaneously.

Book a Discovery Call

Ready to strengthen your cyber resilience?

A 30-minute discovery call is the best place to start. We’ll listen to your challenges, explain what good looks like in your sector, and give you a clear sense of how we can help — with no obligation.

Email to book a call +44 (0) 7879 414006

Typical response within one business day — London, UK

Location
London, United Kingdom