Back in the story-book forest, a young Raven perched on the highest branch, proudly guarding a wedge of cheese she had promised to deliver to the Winter Feast.
Down below, a clever but over-confident Fox glanced up and scoffed:
“Relax, little bird. The feast isn’t for ages. I’ll fetch a ladder later, when the woodcutters aren’t so busy.”
Days slipped by. When the Fox at last went to hire a ladder, every carpenter in the forest was already flooded with urgent orders; prices had doubled and delivery slots were booked solid.
The feast was tomorrow, and even the fastest Fox couldn’t stretch time to build a ladder overnight. The Raven, still waiting, sighed—and the whole forest went hungry.
Why this mirrors companies postponing NIS 2 / CMMC 2.0 level readiness
- Late start – Like the Fox, firms assume there will always be “plenty of time” before regulators enforce NIS 2 or buyers demand CMMC-grade evidence.
- Resource crunch – When everyone rushes at once, qualified auditors and certification bodies are scarce and their prices soar.
- Fixed deadline – The regulatory “feast” date will not move; no amount of money can conjure double the hours in a day.
- Collective impact – A single supplier’s delay can starve an entire supply chain of compliance, exposing partners to fines and lawsuits.
Moral: Start climbing today—before the ladders are gone, the costs skyrocket, and the feast (or the regulator) arrives.
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Perfect—and provable—cyber-risk governance is the only real safety net for SME (“kmo”) suppliers in critical chains
- Regulators now fine the buyer for its suppliers’ lapses.
- Under NIS2 an “essential” or “important” company that relies on you can be hit with up to €10 million / 2 % (essential) or €7 million / 1.4 % (important) if any link in its supply chain falls short on cyber-risk management (source: quointelligence.eu. )
- DORA goes further for finance: boards must evidence rigorous ICT-third-party oversight and can be sanctioned when a provider cannot prove resilience (source: afm.nl.) If your governance is patchy, those clients must either replace you or accept the fine exposure—so they will demand audit-grade assurance.
- Insurance and courts both punish false assurances. Brokers such as Vanbreda note that cyber insurance pays only when the insured can show solid controls and truthful disclosures; cover even extends to GDPR fines provided the statements were accurate vanbreda.be.
- Recent cases show what happens when suppliers exaggerate their posture: a U.S. defence contractor paid $4.6 million after the DOJ proved it had falsely certified its cybersecurity compliance (source: saul.com). In Europe, similar misstatements can trigger contractual indemnities and negligence suits.
- Only “perfect” governance—clear policies, continuous monitoring, evidence trails—closes every gap. It satisfies DORA/NIS2 audit checks, keeps customers inside their risk-appetite, preserves insurance cover, and provides the paper trail that defuses litigation when something still goes wrong. Anything less leaves both you and your larger, regulated partners financially exposed.
Part 3 – The Owl’s Trust 2.0 Ladder
Winter has barely melted when a wise Owl glides into the clearing, clutching blueprints stamped “Trust 2.0 – Vinçotte method.”
“Trust,” she tells the still-ladder-less Fox and cheese-less Raven,
“isn’t a slogan. It’s a system, a culture and a commitment; you bake it into every rung before you ever climb.” vincotte.be
She reminds them that the smartest creatures start early, while the forest is quiet, because once the crowds arrive no carpenter can help you in time. vincotte.be
Building the ladder
- Vinçotte mindset – Trust by design
Rungs forged from governance: legal, technical and organisational fibres inter-woven, so the ladder never snaps under regulatory weight.- Qfirst hardening – Instant audit muscles
The Beaver guild from Qfirst bolts on rapid-test braces: their Internal Auditor Cyfun Essential kit teaches animals to audit and gap-analyse in a single sprint, cutting the search for weak spots from months to days.(source: qfirst.be )- ISMS.online – One-tree platform
The trunk is a cloud hub: pre-built DORA, NIS2 & CRA templates save weeks of chiselling. ( source: nl.isms.online )
A shared dashboard keeps every bird and beast in sync with automated reminders and team chat, ending endless messenger flights. (source: nl.isms.online )
Together those pieces let the forest folk reuse 80 % of their wood and labour on each new branch they add—so the feast ladder is finished long before the next winter moon.
Moral: When you weave Trust 2.0 into the very grain of your ladder—with Vinçotte’s culture-first blueprint, Qfirst’s audit horsepower, and ISMS.online’s one-stop governance hub—compliance (DORA, NIS2, CRA) becomes a harvest, not a hurdle, and no feast is ever missed again.
