Malicious actors are changing tactics, targeting personally identifiable information (PII) that’s often easy to steal and lucrative to sell. Consider the recent case of an email marketing breach that saw 809 million PII-containing records compromised by attackers. Today, nonprofit organizations that have historically been overlooked by hackers are viewed as lucrative opportunities. Lacking robust security controls and strategies, critical donor and patron PII offers high value and low risk for potential attackers. At HALOCK Security Labs, we’re committed to deploying cybersecurity for nonprofit organizations that both reduces total risk and enhances long-term defense — here’s how our team can help. 

The Nonprofit Cybersecurity Problem

Nonprofits often struggle with cybersecurity. As noted by recent survey data, almost 70% of those asked had no documented policies and procedures in place for cyberattacks, even though 37% have discovered unauthorized applications on their network. What’s more, 20% “don’t know” if their network has been compromised by unapproved apps. This creates a gap between critical nonprofit cybersecurity and organizational mandates. Companies know they need to better protect donor and patron information, but often lack the IT expertise and infrastructure required. Managing sensitive data of charities, endowments, foundations, trusts, associations, and other NPOs requires specialized security strategies.

Better Cybersecurity for Nonprofits

Improving cybersecurity for nonprofits is often made more difficult because companies lack the time and resources to deploy full-time, dedicated IT teams. HALOCK can help nonprofits meet this challenge with services such as:

• Risk-Based Threat Assessment: Improve protection against the five MITRE ATT&CK Types. Understand if you are likely at risk for a ransomware or malware attack. Further prioritize security controls to enhance or implement using the best threat data the cybersecurity community offers, leveraging the HALOCK Industry Threat (HIT) Index, a model for estimating the most likely (and least likely) ways your organization will be hit by a cybersecurity or information security attack.

• HALOCK’s Cloud Security Assessment: Gain insight on your risks. The assessment provides a review of Azure, AWS, and Google (GCP) cloud environments to identify risks and recommends how to remediate them.

• Security Engineering: Complexity can sidetrack cybersecurity for nonprofit organizations; the wide array of IT and services now available makes it challenging to identify the mix of on-premise and cloud-based security products. HALOCK’s professional security engineering services help nonprofits find their InfoSec best fit, such as security architecture reviews and sensitive data scanning. A consistent and steady review of your threat landscape is a best practice for your industry through a managed detection and response program (MDR) or Threat Hunting Program.

• Compliance Management: PII handling, storage, and security is now governed by multiple — and evolving — pieces of legislation such as GDPR, HIPAA, and state-specific acts. For PCI DSS, ensure you have implemented the proper standards for your specific cardholder data environment (CDE). Understand changes in password requirements, training, Targeted Risk Analysis (TRA), scanning, outsourcing eCommerce, automation, and more. We can help you achieve and maintain PCI Compliance. Learn how these requirements impact your program. Protect your members’ and patrons’ sensitive information. Assess your compliance. Our experts help nonprofits identify relevant compliance regulations and ensure they’re prepared to meet the challenge.

• Penetration Testing: If nonprofit cybersecurity fails, investigating agencies will look for “due diligence” in protecting PII. HALOCK’s penetration testing services are designed to search for network vulnerabilities and recommend key countermeasures to boost cybersecurity for nonprofits. Services include external and internal network, wireless or wifi, web application, social engineering, assumed breach, adversary simulation, and remediation verification penetration testing. Ensure your testing includes a comprehensive pen test report that details your vulnerabilities by criticality, with a remediation plan on how to manage your risk. 

• External Attack Surface Management (EASM) service provides continuous discovery, exploit validation, and risk-based prioritization to keep you ahead of threats. With an evolving attack surface, get the visibility and insight to prioritize your security controls.

• Workforce Recruiting: If you’re looking for in-house IT talent, the specialized nature of many security roles, combined with the competitiveness of the InfoSec job market, makes this a challenge for nonprofit cybersecurity. HALOCK can help define critical job roles and provide access to skilled candidates who aren’t available on job boards.

• Incident Response: When a breach does occur, you need to address the attack immediately, contain it, and remediate the threat. Having a trusted, expert incident response team to stop, fix, and develop an ongoing incident response plan (IRP) helps keep your data secure and improve overall cybersecurity for nonprofits. Thus, HALOCK’s incident response management, process, and planning provide comprehensive coverage in the event of a security breach. Conduct a forensic analysis. Be response-ready with an Incident Response Readiness as a Service (IRRaaS) program.

• Third Party Risk Management (TPRM)/Vendor Risk Management: Ensure third-party partners are aligned with your organization’s risk controls. Vendors and contractors serve as an extension of your group. They represent you and should operate under your business requirements. A recent Panorays study revealed 41% of organizations are not sure if their suppliers were out of compliance in the past year. It also indicated that half of the respondents cited third-party risk as one of the top 5 items in their risk register and expect this risk to increase. A required best practice is to always conduct a supplier risk assessment to keep your vendors on point with your security posture. HALOCK can help build and manage a specific nonprofit cybersecurity organization program for your environment.

• Risk Assessments: Regulations require your safeguards to be reasonable to your organization, customers, and partners. With many frameworks available, how do you establish your acceptable risk? The Duty of Care Risk Assessment (DoCRA) helps you define a balanced security strategy factoring in compliance and safeguards based on your specific business and objectives.

• Risk Management Program: Get the industry knowledge you need to prioritize and optimize security investments while keeping you compliant. Establish a defensible risk and security approach. An ongoing risk management program provides continuous maintenance and insight into your risk profile and how to enhance your security.

• Privacy: CCPA is the most sweeping legislation to date in the U.S. that concerns the protection of personal information and cybersecurity for nonprofits. It broadens the definition of what constitutes personal information and gives California citizens greater control over what companies can do with their personal data. The California privacy law includes the right to exempt their own personal information from being shared or purchased on the open market. Understand the impact this change and other states’ requirements have on your organization. Implement a recurring Sensitive Data Scanning as a Service (SDSaaS) program.

• Cyber Security Awareness Training – With many employees now working remotely, they are targets for hackers. Ensure they understand the potential cybersecurity threats they may experience and best practices to prevent cyber attacks on your data. Security Awareness training will provide guidance on how to detect suspicious activity and what to do in the event of a security incident.

“We have always had a good experience with HALOCK. Whether a planned project, or incident emergency.”

– Non-profit association

Finding the Balance With HALOCK

Effective nonprofit cybersecurity requires organizations to find a balance between data protection and company performance. If staff can’t easily access donor information to drive new pledges, campaign goals could go unmet. Further, if unpatched security holes let hackers through the gate, nonprofits could face serious legal and legislative challenges. That’s why we created the concept of purpose-driven security: tools and teams custom-designed to address your specific issues without impacting productivity. To enhance cyber security for nonprofits, this requires applying just the right amount of security engineering, compliance management, and penetration testing; and leveraging our workforce to ensure critical assets and network processes are protected. Cybersecurity for nonprofits is essential to defend PII and guarantee smooth operations — HALOCK can help. Let’s talk.

FAQs

What Types of Organizations are Considered Nonprofit?

The non-profit industry (sometimes also known as the nonprofit sector or the third sector) can be defined as organizations that are meant to serve a social, educational, charitable, or community mission; in other words, any sector where the organization does not have as its primary purpose the generation of profit for its owners or shareholders. Here’s a list of the most common types of organizations typically included in the non-profit industry.

Charitable Organizations (Public Charities)

Mission: To serve the social, humanitarian, or environmental needs of the public.
What are Some Examples of Charitable Organizations?

• Food banks (e.g. Feeding America)
• Homeless shelters
• Health-related charities (e.g. Alzheimer’s Association)
• Disaster relief organizations (e.g. Red Cross)

Educational Institutions

Mission: To provide educational or training services, often with some charitable or community goal in mind.
What are Some Examples of Educational Institutions?

• Private schools and universities (nonprofit ones)
• Scholarship foundations and trusts
• Literacy programs and tutoring centers

Healthcare Organizations

Mission: To provide health services for a community or charitable need.
What are Some Examples of Healthcare Organizations?

• Nonprofit hospitals, Free clinics
• Medical Humanitarian organizations (e.g., Doctors without Borders)
• Health research and education foundations

Arts, Culture, and Humanities Organizations

Mission: To advance the arts, culture, and/or the public’s understanding and appreciation of the humanities.
What are Some Examples of Arts, Culture, and Humanities Organizations?

• Museums and art galleries (e.g., Griffin Museum of Science and Industry)
• Theaters and symphonies (e.g, Chicago Symphony Orchestra)
• Historical societies (e.g, Chicago Historical Society)
• Community arts and culture programs

Environmental and Animal Welfare Organizations

Mission: To protect or conserve the environment, wildlife, or natural resources; to further environmental or animal welfare issues.
What are Some Examples of Environmental and Animal Welfare Organizations?

• Environmental advocacy and research groups (e.g., The Nature Conservancy)
• Animal shelters and animal rescue and adoption groups (e.g,. PAWS Chicago)
• Conservation and sustainability nonprofits (e.g, World Wide Fund for Nature)

Community and Social Service Organizations

Mission: To serve and support community needs and/or to improve the quality of life for people.
What are Some Examples of Social Service Organizations?

• Youth programs and mentoring (e.g., Boys & Girls Clubs)
• Services for seniors
• Family services and counseling centers
• Housing assistance and neighborhood improvement groups

Religious Organizations

Mission: To further or practice a religion or to engage in charitable work related to a religious group.
What are Some Examples of Religious Organizations?

• Churches, mosques, synagogues, temples
• Faith-based charitable or missionary work
• Religious education and training programs

Advocacy and Public Policy Organizations

Mission: To influence laws, policies, public opinion, or social practices.
What are Some Examples of Public Policy Organizations?

• Civil rights and civil liberties groups (e.g., National Disability Rights Network)
• Environmental advocacy and protection groups
• Political education and advocacy nonprofits (note: these are nonpartisan).

International and Development Organizations

Mission: To provide humanitarian aid or development support to countries outside of the organization’s home nation.
What are Some Examples of International and Development Organizations?

• UNICEF
• CARE International
• Global health and international poverty alleviation nonprofits

Professional and Membership Associations (nonprofit form)

Mission: To serve the needs or interests of members rather than the general public. Can be either for-profit or nonprofit.
What are Some Examples of Professional or Membership Associations?

• Trade and professional associations (e.g., Information Systems Security Association)
• Professional societies (e.g,. American Medical Association)
• Unions, chambers of commerce

Be Our Guest at FutureCon Chicago 2026

Enjoy breakfast and lunch while connecting with colleagues and industry executives.

Session: Why AI Can’t Fix Your Cyber Risk (and Might Be Making It Worse)

Speaker: Chris Cronin, ISO 27001 Auditor |  Partner, HALOCK and Reasonable Risk  |  Board Chair, The DoCRA Council

DATE: Thursday, January 29, 2026

WHERE: Live In Person | Virtual | Hybrid @ Chicago Marriott Oak Brook

CREDITS: Earn up to 10 CPE Credits

RSVP here

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