Cyber-attacks come in many different shapes and sizes, but the vast majority of them are simplistic – designed by cyber criminals who are looking to get the maximum financial gain from minimum effort.
Despite not being very sophisticated in their execution, every 19 seconds a UK business falls victim to being hacked, which would largely be avoidable with the right level of security protections. Cyber Essentials is a simple way of helping SMEs protect themselves against cybercrime.
What is Cyber Essentials?
Cyber Essentials is a Government-backed, industry supported scheme from the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) to help organisations protect themselves against online threats.
There are two levels of Cyber Essentials certification:
Cyber Essentials (CE)
This involves self-assessment against a set of criteria as set out by the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) to unearth vulnerabilities to basic attacks, and sets out basic security measures which must be put in place in order to protect against them, and gain the Cyber Essentials Certification.
Cyber Essentials Plus (CE+)
CE+ still maintains the same simple approach and recommends the same security measures, but also involves a hands-on tech technical verification. This is likely the better option for organisations handling particularly sensitive data or who are looking to attract clients who are looking for a greater level of security reassurance from third parties they work with.
Why do I need Cyber Essentials?
44% of UK consumers claim that they would stop spending money with a business in the immediate aftermath of a data breach, and 41% said they would make this a permanent withdrawal of support, according to this global research report on business data practices.
Even if you aren’t looking to attract new customers, can you afford to lose the ones you already have in the event of your business experiencing a data breach as a result of a cyber-attack?
Being certified isn’t just about gaining a tick in a box – organisations who already have the certification report a positive impact on both consumer and investor confidence, how confident they feel in their protections, and their management’s understanding of security risk.
Cyber Essentials is essentially a security baseline for businesses to adopt, and the use of the CE logo is like a rubber stamp to give clients and potential clients confidence that you have everything in place needed to keep their data safe. We’re also finding that our clients are often now needing to be certified in order to win work, or tender for certain contracts so it’s worth being prepared!
Increase the chance of securing business
A visible Cyber Essentials certification adds trust to your brand, giving you a competitive advantage over rival businesses who are not accredited.
Protect against Cyber Attacks
By aligning your IT with Cyber Essentials’ standards, your organisation will be well-protected, reducing the likelihood of cyber attacks.
Demonstrate security competence
By becoming Cyber Essentials certified, you can display the logo on printed and digital material. This provides reassurance to customers and potential customers that you take cyber security seriously.
How do I get Cyber Essentials certified?
The CE accreditation looks at five areas of your IT systems
Cloud computing makes data backup and disaster recovery much easier and less expensive as a full image of your business files and software can be taken and quickly re-deployed to your machines if there is an issue.
- Firewalls
- Secure configurations
- User access controls
- Malware protection
- Patch management
In order for you to become certified, we analyse your current setup against these five categories, we compile an action plan which will bring you up to the security standard the accreditation requires, and then we implement the suggestions for you to get you certification-ready!
Like with anything in the world of technology, new threats and stronger protections are evolving all the time, so we review your situation on an ongoing basis, to make sure you’re always up to accreditation standard. We offer our Cyber Essentials service on a monthly-fee basis, which includes the cost of your first audit, the certification itself, and continued work to keep you up-to-date.
Working with us
We’re in the business of helping businesses. We provide IT solutions and support to facilitate and encourage growth.
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