Choosing help
Secured and proven or a managed IT provider: which do you need?
They do different jobs. A managed IT provider looks after your devices and supports your staff every month. Secured and proven closes the compliance gaps an insurer or customer asks about, once, and proves it with a second scan and an evidence pack. If you have an IT provider, the programme adds the proof. If you have none, your devices still need one.
By Oscar CobbeCurrent as at 5 minute read3 sources
What each costs
As published on 22 October 2026.
| Option | Published price | How it is paid |
|---|---|---|
| Managed IT, iPing's figure for Dublin | €350 to €900 a month for 10 to 20 staff | Monthly |
| Managed IT, Panoptic's calculator | €1,080 to €1,560 a month for 10 people and 15 devices, Microsoft 365 licences included | Monthly, with a one-off onboarding fee |
| FourWinds, Secured and proven | €2,950 up to 10 staff, €4,950 for 11 to 25, €7,500 for 26 to 50 | Once, fixed in writing before the work starts |
| FourWinds, Run | €450 a month | Monthly, after a Build or Secured and proven |
Which job is whose
The managed IT column is what iPing and Panoptic list on the pages cited below. A particular contract may include more, and it is the contract that says.
| The job | Managed IT, as published | Secured and proven |
|---|---|---|
| Support your staff can call on | Listed by both | No |
| Software updates and patching on every device | Listed by iPing; Panoptic lists devices looked after | No |
| Antivirus or endpoint security tools | Listed by iPing; Panoptic lists all its security in the fee | No |
| Microsoft 365 licences | Inside Panoptic's fee | No |
| Two-step sign-in on every staff account | Not in the published lists | Yes |
| Backups, with a test restore done and dated | Not in the published lists | Yes |
| An incident plan, practised once with the people it names | Not in the published lists | Yes |
| SPF and DMARC set to enforce | Not in the published lists | Yes |
| Cookie consent and a privacy notice that names every tracker | Not in the published lists | Yes |
| A second scan, a CyFun Basic score and an evidence pack for insurers | Panoptic prices evidence for the standards your industry must meet into its fee; neither names a score | Yes |
Run is not managed IT
Run, at €450 a month, is our monthly product, and it looks after different things: up to five of your systems (the website, forms, bookings, payments, the automations and the connections between them), the website's updates, and one report a month on enquiries, bookings, revenue and cost per booking. After Secured and proven, it scans your website and email again every week and reopens a fix that slips. It has no help desk for staff and does not manage laptops or phones.
OBF Insurance Group's list of what underwriters expect includes regular patching and managed endpoint detection and response on every laptop and desktop. If nobody does that for you today, it is a job for an IT provider. Run sits beside that provider, and Secured and proven gives both of you the same evidence to work from.
If you already have an IT provider
Ask them for the items in the lower half of the table, in writing, with dates. If they have done them and can show it, your insurer's questionnaire is already answerable. If they cannot show it, that is the gap Secured and proven closes.
Our guide on what it costs to meet cyber insurance requirements prices the same jobs across other kinds of provider.
Sources
Free, and no account needed
See what your setup shows from outside, free
The free compliance check reads your website and email settings from outside and asks a few questions about the business. Send the result to your IT provider: it shows which of the lower rows of the table are already done.
Run the free checkThe insurer basics, done and proven, beside your IT provider
Secured and proven sets up two-step sign-in, a tested restore, a practised incident plan and email protection, then proves them with a second scan, a CyFun Basic score and an evidence pack. It works beside your IT provider. From €2,950 up to 10 staff, fixed before we start.
Secured and provenWho wrote this
Oscar Cobbe · Founder, FourWinds Digital
Writes and maintains the legal explainers on this site, and does the compliance work behind them. Every date and article number here is checked against the legislation itself before it is published, and updated when the law changes.
More about how we work →Read next
- Cyber insuranceWhat does it cost to meet cyber insurance requirements in Ireland?
- The retainerWhat our monthly technology retainer covers
- Cyber insuranceWhat a cyber insurer asks an Irish small business, and how to answer it truthfully
Written on 22 October 2026 and accurate as at that date. This is general information about how the rules work, not legal advice on your situation. Where you need a solicitor, we say so.