Defining Cyber Essentials & why your business needs to implement it!

Cyber security is growing in importance in most businesses nowadays with many different steps available for businesses looking to boost their cyber security defences. One of the main ones that is available for UK based businesses is the government approved Cyber Essentials offering. 

In our latest blog article, we will define what Cyber Essentials is as well as highlighting why your business needs to implement it straight away. 

So, let’s start by defining Cyber Essentials 

With more and more businesses falling victim to cyber-attacks, this has had a detrimental impact on the economy. The UK government then decided that enough was enough and drove the requirement for good practices in information security, this is where the government backed scheme called Cyber Essentials was born. 

This was launched back in 2014 alongside industry partners such as the Information Security Forum & the Information Assurance for SMEs (IASME). With cyber-attacks accelerating dramatically over the last few years particularly in SMEs, security has even more importance than ever before. 

The main reason for this scheme being introduced was to keep data safe through a security framework, making sure that businesses kept on top of the basics of due diligence on how data was being accessed & secured to help decrease the chances of it being compromised. 

These basic controls are split into 5 categories: 

• Access control 
• Secure configuration 
• Patch management 
• Malware protection 
• Internet gateways and boundary firewalls 

How can my business benefit from being Cyber Essentials certified? 

If your business decides to become Cyber Essentials certified, you will be protected from over 80% of cyber security attacks as well as benefiting in a number of different ways: 

Building trust and confidence 

Businesses that are Cyber Essentials certified and have the badge alongside this are demonstrating their compliance and commitment to cyber security which looks to create trust and confidence between customers, suppliers and other partners. 

Highly secure partnerships 

This is handy to have to allow businesses to check for this when working with other partners where an exchange of data sets is required. 

Peace of mind 

Having Cyber Essentials in place can help to give customers peace of mind that you are always looking to safeguard your IT systems against any form of cyber-attack, which can be useful in attracting new clients. 

No cost insurance 

You will find that some businesses that are fully compliant with Cyber Essentials may qualify to receive cyber insurance cover of up to £25,000 and it might also help to reduce any other associated insurance costs for your business. 

How can my business become Cyber Essentials certified? 

You will be pleased to know that Cyber Essentials certification can be completed remotely. However, we would strongly suggest that in order to guarantee full compliance and to maintain this compliance going forwards you should consider working with a dedicated managed services provider such as ourselves so that they can guide through the whole process end-to-end. 

Furthermore, it can be the case that some businesses ask for Cyber Essentials Plus certification in order to do business with them.  This is the same form of certification but also includes a third-party security assessment. 

Advantage are a leading managed service provider in London who have achieved the Cyber Essentials certification and have worked with a number of businesses across different industries and sectors to help them to achieve full certification. Our team of cyber security experts have years of experience in both IT and cyber security solutions and can be on hand to help take you through the whole process. To get started give them a call today! 

Want to get articles like the above sent to your inbox? This can be achieved if you simply choose to receive our marketing emails.