Legacy Core™
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About

Closing the Trust Gap for the small businesses your community relies on.

Legacy Core™ is America's Small Business Trust Credentialing Authority — creator of the small business trust credentialing category, with framework-informed pathways and live verification your clients can check in one click.

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A letter from the founder

Chris Green · Founder & CEO

I'm Chris Green. I grew up in Silicon Valley, surrounded by technology — but my career didn't start there.

I started in the real economy: sales, hospitality, firefighting, logistics, EHS, business operations. Different industries, but the same thing kept happening in every one of them — I was the person they asked to train the new hires, run the seminars, and take complicated processes and turn them into something anyone could follow. That became my craft long before I ever touched cybersecurity: translation. Taking what's complex and making it usable.

I've also been a small business owner. And I'll be honest about something: back then, cybersecurity was never a thought for me. I was doing what most owners do — hoping for the best. Nobody was talking to businesses like mine.

When I moved into cybersecurity and earned my credentials through ISC2 and Google, I saw why. Everything in this industry — the frameworks, the tools, the language, the support — is built for large organizations. As AI accelerates and customer data becomes the center of every trust conversation, small businesses are being asked the same questions as the big ones, with none of the same resources. There are 36 million small businesses in this country. They're the backbone of our communities. And almost nothing is built for them.

So I built Legacy Core around a simple idea: take the same national cybersecurity frameworks the government and large enterprises rely on, and translate them into plain language a business owner can actually act on — the way anyone can learn CPR without going to medical school. Then take it one step further: give that business a live, publicly verifiable credential, so when a client asks “is my information safe with you?” there's a real answer they can check for themselves.

A Trust Badge doesn't make a business hack-proof — nothing does, and I won't pretend otherwise. What it does is prove a business has taken real, reviewed steps to protect what its customers trust it with, and gives that owner the keys to keep improving.

And I'm not here to compete with the companies already doing good security work. I'm here to connect them — building an ecosystem where trusted providers and small businesses find each other, and where professionals from both sides of the table, business and tech, work on the same problem: making our communities, and our country, safer.

It's a long road. I believe it's worth walking.

— Chris Green, Founder & CEO

Chris Green

Questions? I read every email. contact@legacycore.com

Talk to the founder — not a sales team. Book 15 minutes.

Who we build for

The owners, partners, and teams behind Main Street.

Real firms handle their clients’ most sensitive information every day. Legacy Core gives them a plain-language pathway and a credential their clients can verify.

A small team meeting in an office, one person presenting to the group
A small business team working together around a table with laptops

Photography is illustrative.

The category we created

Why this matters now

The Trust Gap is what you can prove vs. what you assume. Customers, lenders, insurers, and regulators increasingly expect documented, verifiable cyber readiness — most small businesses still lack a simple answer. Legacy Core built the credentialing pathway to close that gap in plain language.

Feel See Discover Trust Act

  1. Step 1

    Feel

    The unease of not being sure what to say when a client asks how their data is protected.

  2. Step 2

    See

    Recognize the Trust Gap — the distance between how secure you actually are and what your clients can verify.

  3. Step 3

    Discover

    Understand the readiness signals professional services clients quietly look for before they refer.

  4. Step 4

    Trust

    Adopt a credentialing pathway that orients to recognized frameworks and produces verifiable evidence.

  5. Step 5

    Act

    Display a Trust Badge that links to a public registry record any client can verify in seconds.

Our Mission

Making cybersecurity understandable for the businesses America depends on.

Legacy Core™ created the small business trust credentialing category in the United States. We exist to make cybersecurity feel less intimidating and more actionable for the local firms, practices, agencies, and service providers that form the backbone of American communities. Most small businesses have limited time, limited resources, and no dedicated security team. Our role is to turn rising cybersecurity expectations into a clear, step-by-step credentialing pathway — visible readiness signals and Trust Badges clients can verify.

  • Plain-language cybersecurity

    We turn complex security expectations into practical actions small business owners can explain, adopt, and maintain.

  • Community trust infrastructure

    The Trust Badge and public registry help communities recognize businesses that are taking cybersecurity readiness seriously.

  • Built for small business reality

    Legacy Core is designed for organizations with limited resources, growing technology exposure, and a need to show clients that trust is being earned.

About Legacy Core

Built for the new trust economy

Legacy Core was built in response to a simple reality: small businesses are being asked to prove more, explain more, and document more when it comes to cybersecurity and trust. But most of the tools, frameworks, and compliance conversations in the market were not built for Main Street owners.

Legacy Core exists to translate frameworks, risk, and cyber expectations into a plain-language system small businesses can actually use. It helps turn technical readiness into something visible, practical, and easier for customers, partners, lenders, and insurers to understand.

Founder credibility

Legacy Core is led by a founder focused on closing the gap between cybersecurity expectations and small-business reality, helping local businesses and community ecosystems move from confusion to credible action. The mission is not to add more fear or complexity, but to create a clearer path to trust that more businesses can actually follow.

The Legacy Core ecosystem

A trust ecosystem — not a one-time checklist.

Legacy Core connects small businesses, verifiable credentials, and vetted Alliance Partners into one loop: understand the risk, earn the credential, implement the right services, and build community trust over time.

  1. Step 1

    Understand your risks

    Start with the non-technical Trust Audit. See where your business stands across passwords, phishing, devices, data protection, and incident preparedness — before you buy anything.

    Start the Free Trust Audit
  2. Step 2

    Earn a verifiable credential

    Complete the credentialing pathway, pass Legacy Core review, and receive a Trust Badge listed in the Public Business Trust Registry — something clients can verify in seconds.

    Get credentialed
  3. Step 3

    Choose a vetted Alliance Partner

    Select from the Alliance Partner Directory: established MSSPs, cyber insurance advisers, CPAs, and service providers vetted by Legacy Core — not a random vendor list.

    See partners
  4. Step 4

    Implement the right services

    Because the assessment and credential made the gaps visible, implementation conversations start with context — not fear-based upselling. Partners deliver MSSP, insurance, and advisory work that matches real readiness needs.

  5. Step 5

    Grow the ecosystem together

    Alliance Partners earn referral compensation for businesses they introduce and support. Businesses progress toward Silver and Gold with partner attestation when evidence exists — building community trust infrastructure, not one-off transactions.

    Partner with us

Vetted Alliance Partners

Established businesses that implement — not generic lead lists.

Legacy Core is a credentialing authority, not an MSP. After credentialing, businesses work with partners who already serve professional services firms — with referral compensation for partners who introduce and support credentialed clients.

Partners are reviewed before directory listing. Attestation without evidence is never accepted. Self-attestation by businesses is never accepted.

  • MSSPs & managed security providers
  • Cyber insurance & commercial risk advisers
  • CPAs, bookkeepers & business advisers
  • Chambers & professional associations

Standards philosophy

Aligned with frameworks. Honest about authority.

Orients to NIST CSF 2.0 and similar frameworks — does not replace them or claim regulatory authority. Private credential, reviewed and issued, with live verification.

  • Aligned with frameworks, not pretending to be one

    The Bronze rubric orients to recognized small business cybersecurity readiness frameworks (including NIST CSF 2.0 and CIS Controls). It does not claim to be those frameworks, and it is not a regulatory standard.

  • A credentialing pathway, not a class

    The pathway content is structured around what a credential review actually evaluates — readiness artifacts, documented practices, and verifiable signals — rather than around lessons or modules.

  • A private credentialing authority

    Legacy Core is a private credentialing authority, not a regulator. Trust Badges are credentials issued by Legacy Core. They are not licenses, permits, or government endorsements.

Community focus

National by design. Rooted in the Inland Empire.

Legacy Core credentials professional services small businesses nationwide through one pathway. Headquarters and early community work are in the Inland Empire — proof of presence, not a service boundary.

A community event and presentation venue set up with round tables

  • Headquartered in the Inland Empire

    Built from headquarters in the Inland Empire — Temecula, Murrieta, Menifee, Hemet, Riverside, and Corona — and designed for professional services firms nationwide.

  • Built with chamber and industry partners

    Legacy Core works directly with chambers of commerce, business associations, brokers, accountants, and cybersecurity service providers who serve professional services small business.

Photography is illustrative.

By industry

Regulatory context for your vertical

Binding obligations vary by profession. Legacy Core credentials readiness — not WISP, HIPAA, Reg S-P, or NAIC compliance. These guides keep the distinction clear.

Boundary

What a Legacy Core credential does not attest to

A Trust Badge documents demonstrated readiness against a dated Standards Release (assessment basis: NIST CSF 2.0 and CIS Controls v8). It is not a substitute for industry-specific legal or regulatory obligations.

  • FTC Safeguards Rule or WISP compliance (CPAs / tax preparers)
  • HIPAA compliance or OCR audit readiness (medical / dental)
  • ABA or State Bar ethics sign-off (attorneys)
  • SEC Regulation S-P compliance (investment advisers)
  • NAIC Insurance Data Security Model Law (including in California — not adopted)
  • CCPA cybersecurity audits (threshold-gated regulation)
  • Cyber insurance approval or claim guarantee
  • Penetration test, SOC 2, CMMC, or government endorsement

Legacy Core is aligned with NIST CSF 2.0 and CIS Controls v8. Legacy Core is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or accredited by NIST, CIS, or any government agency. Tracking a framework does not constitute a determination of legal or regulatory compliance.

Industry-specific obligations by vertical: Regulatory context guides

Start with a readiness baseline.

Take the short non-technical assessment, identify practical gaps, and use the results to decide whether your business is ready to pursue Trust Badge review.

Start the Free Trust AuditFor Partners
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