Cyber Essentials is a government-backed accreditation that your business can achieve for outstanding IT security, and the benefits of cyber essentials are wide and varied. The aim of the certification is to help your business demonstrate its commitment to cyber security and data protection.

An annual inspection is undertaken to ensure that you still have measures in place that protect your business from cyber threats. With Neuways, you can automate your annual inspection so that, assuming your business still meets the criteria, your accreditation rolls over to the next year.

There are two tiers of Cyber Essentials: Cyber Essentials and Cyber Essentials Plus.

Cyber Essentials is a self-assessment with a ready-made checklist for the user to complete.

Cyber Essentials Plus is assessed on-site independently and is a requirement for businesses that wish to bid for certain UK Government contracts.

Cyber Essentials benefits two major stakeholders: the business and the customer.

Securing and Growing Your Business

In an increasingly crowded marketplace and with cyber crime victims losing over £190,000 a day, showing that your business meets the industry standard of cyber security is an important differentiator when it comes to distinguishing yourself from your market competitors.

A key business benefit of Cyber Essentials is that it encourages a wider culture of cyber security within your business; making your business more secure in the long run. From end user best practices to technical essentials, Cyber Essentials assesses your business on the following five controls:

  • 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.
  • Secure configuration – ensuring that systems are configured in the most secure way for the needs of the organisation
  • Access control – Ensuring only those who should have access to systems have the required access and at the appropriate level.
  • Malware protection – ensuring that virus and malware protection is installed and up to date
  • Patch management – ensuring the latest supported version of applications is used and all the necessary patches supplied by the vendor have been applied

Another of the many benefits of cyber essentials comes if you want to work with UK Government organisations, then your business needs Cyber Essentials in order to bid for the contracts. Without Cyber Essentials you are potentially halting your business’s progression.

Receiving Cyber Essentials means your information and devices are well protected from approximately 80% of cyber threats. It also demonstrates that your business’s cyber security practices are up to an industry-set standard. As well as the ability to deal with cyber attacks, having Cyber Essentials means that your business follows best practice when it comes to their IT.

Building Customer Trust

Trust between you and your customers is key.

Cyber Essentials certification is evidence of your business’s responsibility with data. It also demonstrates to your customers and prospects that you take cyber security seriously.

A business that is Cyber Essentials certified is far more likely to keep confidential data between customers and businesses safe.

Customer reviews and opinions matter and can shape the future prospects of your business. This reassures the customer, safe in the knowledge that their important business information is far less likely to be stolen.

By being part of a supply chain of Cyber Essentials certified businesses, you can develop a trusted group of partners who share common goals towards IT and cyber security. This is highly desirable and shows who you can (and potentially cannot) trust with your vital business information.

Essentially, the accreditation is a direct endorsement of your business’s cyber security best practices and shows customers that you can be trusted with their data. We all become safer as more businesses apply for, and achieve, Cyber Essentials.

Cyber security is a collaborative effort – not only as a business, but as a nation. With more and more businesses choosing to apply for Cyber Essentials certification, they are becoming part of something much bigger.

As pictured on the right, Neuways is accredited with Cyber Essentials and can therefore testify to the benefits. We also know how the process works and can offer advice on becoming Cyber Essentials-certified.With this in mind, we are hosting a Cyber Essentials webinar on Wednesday 12th June, 2019 to help more businesses how Cyber Essentials can benefit them and the process of attaining it.