The government approved Cyber Essentials certification programme offers a mechanism for organisations to demonstrate to customers, investors, insurers and others that they have taken these essential InfoSec precautions.  

​

The Cyber Essentials scheme has been developed by Government and industry to fulfil two functions. It provides a clear statement of the basic controls all organisations should implement to mitigate the risk from common internet based threats, within the context of the Government’s 10 Steps to Cyber Security. And through the Assurance Framework it offers a mechanism for organisations to demonstrate to customers, investors, insurers and others that they have taken these essential precautions.  

​

Cyber Essentials offers a sound foundation of basic hygiene measures that all types of organisations can implement and potentially build upon. Government believes that implementing these measures can significantly reduce an organisation's vulnerability. However, it does not offer a silver bullet to remove all cyber security risk; for example, it is not designed to address more advanced, targeted attacks and hence organisations facing these threats will need to implement additional measures as part of their security strategy. What Cyber Essentials does do is define a focused set of controls which will provide costeffective, basic cyber security for organisations of all sizes.

​

The five CE controls 

​

1. Boundary firewalls and internet gateways  - these are devices designed to prevent unauthorised access to or from private networks, but good setup of these devices either in hardware or software form is important for them to be fully effective

 

2. Secure configuration – ensuring that systems are configured in the most secure way for the needs of the organisation 

 

3. Access control – Ensuring only those who should have access to systems to have access and at the appropriate level. 

 

4. Malware protection – ensuring that virus and malware protection is installed and is it up to date 

 

5. Patch management – ensuring the latest supported version of applications is used and all the necessary patches supplied by the vendor been applied.

​

What next? 

​

Contact us to order your Cyber Essentials package. We will arrange a date for your initial preparation meeting with a Cyber Essentials consultant.