Cyber Essentials is a series of self-assessment questions that when answered will highlight and provide visibility of areas of cyber risk your business is exposed too. This allows you to make changes and become a Cyber essentials certified business.​You work through all the questions which are then assessed by the awarding body and you will pass or fail. We have supported services which come with assistance and pre checking of your answers before marking. We haven't had a client who's taken our supported service and followed our advice who has failed and we've been marking assessments since 2015. Or if you know you will pass we also have a marking only service which is simply that, we mark your submission and if its compliant we issue your certificate. If its marked non compliant then you have 2 working days to remediate before you get a free complimentary remarking. No fuss, no support, no turnaround SLA's, just a submission marking.​The basic level of Cyber Essentials (CE) does not require any vulnerability or third-party testing like the higher Cyber Essentials Plus certification which required an audit of your answers.

This is one of the most common questions and include: Are home user devices included? What about Microsoft 365? My company accesses a remote desktop environment so are the PC's and laptops still in scope? What about staff's personal phones? Basically, any systems used to access, process or store organisational data is in scope. That's a very simple way of describing it and the UK Governments NCSC change the framework from time to time. If you would like to check what's covered in the Cyber Essentials assessment you can download the governments Requirements for IT Infrastructure document here. The NCSC sometimes change the link so if you cant download the document please let us know.

Cyber Essentials certification lasts for 12 months from the date your certificate is issued. We recommend starting your renewal a few weeks before expiry so there’s no gap in cover. If you leave it too late you will need to inform all interested parties that your organisation no longer holds Cyber Essentials which can have an impact on any contracts or supply agreements which rely on this.

You should have a clear view of the devices, users, software, and internet-facing services that are in scope. It also helps to have details of your firewall setup, patching process, secure configuration, admin account control, and malware protection. If you choose one of our supported services, we can help you check everything before submission so you can move forward with confidence!

If something does not meet the standard, we’ll tell you what needs fixing. You can then make the changes and resubmit. If you choose one of our supported services, we help reduce that risk by checking things before you go live.