Affiliate disclosure

Last updated: October 19, 2026

Small Biz Cyber Guide (smallbizcyberguide.com), published by Northline Digital LLC, participates in affiliate marketing programs. That means some links on this site — to password managers, VPNs, security software, and related products — may be affiliate links. If you click one and buy or subscribe, I may earn a commission at no extra cost to you.

Why this matters (FTC)

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) requires clear disclosure when a site has a material connection to the products it recommends. An affiliate relationship is that kind of connection. This page exists so the relationship is not hidden.

How I handle recommendations

• Commissions do not change the price you pay the vendor. Any promotion or discount is the vendor’s offer, not ours.
• I aim to recommend tools that fit small-business use cases. Affiliate availability is not the only filter; some good tools may have no program, and some mediocre tools may pay well — I will not pretend otherwise.
• Guides call out tradeoffs and “who it is for / who should skip it.”
• I do not invent current prices as fact. Use vendor pages for live pricing.

Current affiliate partners

As of October 19, 2026, the site has an active affiliate relationship with Nord Security for NordVPN, NordPass, NordLayer (business VPN), and Coveron (identity theft protection, US only); with Surfshark for Surfshark VPN and Surfshark Antivirus; and with IDrive (Partner ID northlined) for cloud backup (IDrive, IDrive 360, IDrive BMR, IDrive e2, and IDrive Microsoft 365 / Google Workspace backup). Links to other vendors are ordinary, unpaid links unless they are labeled as affiliate links. This list is updated when partnerships change.

On-page notices

Guides include a short disclosure near the top, affiliate links are labeled where they appear, and affiliate links are marked for search engines as sponsored. The footer on every page also links here.

Questions

Contact Christopher Smith at [email protected].