Keeping your data secure is extremely important to us.

Cyber threats are all around us and have only become more prominent with a greater reliance on digital products and many of us now working remotely more often.

As part of our commitment to cyber security, we have become Cyber Essentials certified to provide peace of mind to our customers that we are protected against the most common types of cyber threats such as phishing, malware and password breaches.

Read on to find out more about Cyber Essentials, why it’s important and how your business can become Cyber Essentials certified too.

What Is Cyber Essentials?

Cyber Essentials is a government-backed initiative that aims to ensure that businesses can recognise and protect themselves against the most common forms of cyber attack.

To achieve certification, an organisation is assessed against 5 key security controls which are verified by a qualified assessor before the certification is issued.

Cyber Essentials – The Five Key Areas

Throughout our journey to becoming Cyber Essentials certified, we were assessed on 5 security controls across our IT network which were:

  • Firewalls
  • Secure configuration
  • User access control
  • Malware protection
  • Patch management

To ensure we met these requirements, our IT provider collected information from across our business including who had administrative access, the version and jailbroken status of company phones, the security of networks, the strength of our passwords, software usage and user management for employees.

Getting every employee on board with cyber security is essential to prevent breaches so a new security policy was issued to help all members of staff understand the new measures that were put in place.

Benefits of Cyber Essentials 

Cyber Essentials certification offers many benefits to our business and our customer base. The key advantages include:

  • Peace of mind for customers and suppliers that we are protecting their data and sensitive information against cyber threats.
  • Eligibility for government contracts and tenders which require certification for consideration.
  • Empowers our staff to understand how to spot and protect against the most common forms of cyber attack.
  • Makes the business more attractive to prospective clients.
  • Free £25,000 cyber insurance.

You Can Do It Too!

Our Cyber Essentials certification marks another success in our journey of continuous improvement for cyber security and data protection.

The Cyber Essentials scheme has given us a greater understanding of cyber threats and ensures that we have processes in place to protect against them.

If you are interested in becoming Cyber Essentials certified, we would highly recommend Absolutely PC who managed the entire process on our behalf and made any changes to our systems required for certification.