Every site in your sights. Watched, understood and defended around the clock.
Reticle is IT Direct's managed network defence service. It learns what normal looks like on every site, spots what is not, and stops real threats at the router, with a person from IT Direct accountable for the result and Spotter, our AI investigator, explaining what it finds.
Reticle was previously known as SMN-IDP (Smart Managed Networks, Intrusion Detection and Prevention).
What it does for you
Most attacks do not start with a dramatic break-in. They start with a quiet probe, a guessed password or one infected laptop. Reticle is built to notice those early signs and act before they become an outage or a breach.
Sees what is happening
Continuous, non-intrusive monitoring of traffic summaries from your routers. It never reads the content of your data and does not slow your network down.
Learns your normal
Every site builds its own picture of everyday activity, so an unusual device, destination or burst of traffic stands out quickly.
Stops what is dangerous
High-confidence threats are blocked by the router's own firewall for a limited time, with built-in safeguards that never touch your own services, VPNs or our management access. Any block can be undone in one click.
Tells the right people
Clear alerts to the people who need them, by the method they prefer, and plain-language reports you can hand to management.
What it protects against
Coverage focuses on the threats small and mid-sized businesses actually meet.
Optional website filtering can also block advertising, adult and other unwanted categories where a site wants it.
The AI investigator that does the digging at 3am
Spotter is the AI agent built into Reticle, programmed and named by IT Direct. It reads what Reticle knows, including alerts, what it has learned about each site, running jobs and the audit log. Then it explains it in plain language, works out the likely cause and proposes the fix.
Spotter proposes. People decide. It cannot change anything itself: every proposal waits for an authorised person to approve it with their authenticator code. A task only runs without asking when that person has chosen it, and then only for low-risk actions.
Explains every alert
What it is, whether it looks real, and what to do about it, without the jargon.
Finds the cause and proposes the fix
From a noisy alert rule to a service left open to the Internet. Every change goes through the safe-deploy process.
Works inside a charter
Sign-in, approvals, the block list, the safe-deploy pipeline and the audit log can never be changed by Spotter. Any change to Reticle's own code is tested in a throw-away copy first.
Has a kill switch
One click stops every running task, refuses new ones and blocks anything from being applied.
Your choice of AI model
Use a cloud AI model, or one that runs on or near your Reticle Hub so questions stay local. Secrets are removed before anything is sent.
Alert: port scan from 203.0.113.9. Is it real?
Spotter: It looks real, and it is already handled.
- 40 connections to 30 different hosts in one minute, about 12 times what is normal for this site.
- The source is on no threat feed and has never been seen here before.
- The router's firewall dropped everything it sent.
Recommended: acknowledge the alert, and limit SSH to your trusted addresses, because it is still open to the whole Internet at this site.
Each recommendation waits for a person to approve it.
You decide how hands-on it is
Every site runs at the level of protection that suits it. A site behind its provider's network, or behind equipment we already manage, can be watched and reported on without any blocking at all.
Watch and report
Learns and alerts. Nothing is ever blocked automatically.
Recommend, you approve
Suggests each action and waits for a person to confirm it.
Block automatically
Acts on high-confidence threats immediately, and every action can be reviewed and reversed.
Stronger together
Sites we manage learn from each other. When one site meets a new attacker or attack pattern, the others benefit, so a threat seen once is quickly recognised everywhere it matters.
Only behaviour patterns are shared. Your traffic content and your internal addresses never leave your site, and you can choose which sites take part.
Safe by design
Encrypted end to end
Sites connect to Reticle over strongly encrypted links.
Controlled access
Two-step sign-in for everyone, view-only or full roles, and access limited to the sites each person looks after.
Changes you can undo
Every change is backed up first, checked with a fresh connection afterwards, and rolls itself back if anything looks wrong. Every action is recorded with who did it, and can be revoked.
Keeps working if Reticle is offline
If Reticle or a site's agent is ever unavailable, the router's firewall carries on enforcing the rules already in place.
Approve sign-ins from your phone
Our mobile app lets authorised staff approve logins with a tap and a fingerprint, and delivers urgent alerts instantly.
Built on experience, not just software
Reticle is the result of years of know-how, built up by looking after real business networks day to day. Every safeguard in it exists because we have seen what goes wrong in practice, and the service keeps learning from what we meet at each client.
It is built around MikroTik routers and firewalls, working with the equipment you may already own, so there is no rip-and-replace. It is backed by the IT Direct team who run it with you.
Want to see Reticle on your network?
Talk to IT Direct about adding a site to Reticle, or a no-obligation review of how your network is protected today.
Service options. Reticle is available as an option within an IT Direct service level agreement (SLA) package, or as a standalone service.
Ownership and licence. Reticle is proprietary software owned by its developers. IT Direct is licensed in full to use and deliver it.
Liability. IT Direct accepts no liability for any attack, but will take all possible measures to prevent them.
AI assistant. Spotter is an AI assistant. It explains and proposes, and changes are applied only when an authorised person approves them, or for low-risk tasks that person has chosen to run without asking. Like any AI, it can be wrong, so proposals should be reviewed before they are approved.
No security service can promise to stop every attack. Reticle reduces risk, shortens the time to notice a problem and gives you a clear record of what happened. Features available at a site depend on its equipment and the service level agreed.