AAO Cyber Security: Preparing an Authorised Assessment

AAO Cyber Security appears in the AAO Group company directory as a specialist in authorised security assessment, awareness and technology support. A productive first discussion starts with understanding what your organisation owns and what it can authorise someone to review.

Identify the systems in scope

Prepare an inventory of the websites, business applications and accounts relevant to the project. Record the responsible business contact for each system. Distinguish your own infrastructure from services operated by a hosting provider, software vendor or customer.

For example, a retailer may own its website but use an external payment service. The project brief should identify that boundary. Permission to assess one website does not automatically extend to the payment provider or every connected system.

Agree written permissions and boundaries

Ask the assessment team to describe the proposed activities, timing and reporting format before work starts. Establish the systems that may be examined, any prohibited activity and a contact who can pause the work if business operations are affected.

Discuss how sensitive findings will be shared and who should receive them. Keep access limited to the agreed purpose. Avoid sending passwords through public messages; ask for the approved secure method if access is genuinely needed.

Prepare for useful findings

A useful report should help your team decide what to address first. Ask for an explanation of each issue, affected assets, supporting evidence and recommended next steps. Confirm whether remediation assistance and a follow-up review are included or separately quoted.

Create a small action register with an owner and target date for each accepted improvement. Where a finding cannot be resolved immediately, record the reason and the business decision. This creates continuity between the assessment and the people responsible for operating the service.

Begin with a focused enquiry

Contact AAO through the official Group directory linked below with a non-sensitive overview of your requirement. Confirm the exact service scope directly with the team. This is promotional content prepared for AAO Group, with an illustrative planning example; it does not claim an assessment guarantees complete security.