Cyber Essentials lets everyone know that you take Cyber Security seriously and have measures in place to keep their information secure.

Southern ITInspiring is delighted to be working in partnership with approved Cyber Essentials certification body Southern IT to help you achieve Cyber Essentials or Cyber Essential Plus accreditation.

What is Cyber Essentials

The Government’s Cyber Essentials scheme was developed to help organisations within the UK improve their defences and demonstrate their commitment to cyber security.

Cyber Essentials is suitable for all organisations, regardless of their size or industry, or whether they are public, private or third sector. The scheme focuses on controlling key areas of cyber security including:

  • Firewalls and internet gateways
  • Secure configuration
  • Access control, e.g. passwords and access levels
  • Malware and virus protection
  • Patch management – e.g. ensuring that the latest supported software versions are in use

Cyber Essentials has two levels of certification

Basic Cyber Essentials certification involves a self-assessment, where your organisation completes a questionnaire confirming and detailing the measures that are in place regarding cyber security.  Your self-assessment questionnaire will be verified by a certification body to determine whether or not the standard has been achieved. If successful, your organisation will be awarded with Cyber Essentials certification.

Cyber Essentials Plus also requires completing the self-assessment questionnaire, however a Cyber Essentials Assessor from the Certification Body will also visit your premises to carry out on-site testing of your organisation’s cyber security measures.

Whatever level you choose, your certification will be valid for one year, after which the process must be repeated.

Benefits of Cyber Essentials

Being Cyber Essentials accredited will help your organisation to:

  • Ensure policies, processes and measures are in place to protect your business against the most common cyber threats.
  • Prove to customers, suppliers and stakeholders that you have taken steps to implement cyber security measures
  • Get noticed by being listed on the National Cyber Security Centre’s Directory of organisations awarded Cyber Essentials

How much does it cost?

The basic level of Cyber Essentials certification starts at £300 for a straight forward certification assessment involving verification of a self-assessment. If any issues are identified during the verification, the organisation will have two days to correct these before having to submit a new self-assessment, upon which a further £300 will be payable, and so on.

Cyber Essentials Plus will incur a greater cost due to the need for on-site testing. The time and cost will depend on the complexity and size of your organisation, the number of offices and whether you require consultancy or support with implementation. We would be happy to put you in touch with our partners at Southern IT who can talk this through with you.

Resources

Get in Touch

Inspiring and Southern IT are able to provide support at various levels depending on your requirements, to assist your organisation with its Cyber Essentials Assessment.

For more information or chat to one of our team, call 0800 612 3098 or email us now.