10 years of Cyber Essentials was celebrated in November 2024 and its importance to protect your business cannot be undervalued.
In this article we look at how 10 years of Cyber Essentials have supported businesses, what the different levels of Cyber Essentials certifications are, how to achieve certification and who’s who when looking for Cyber Essentials support.
Cyber Essentials certification impresses the importance and need on business owners to protect against the ever increasing threats of cyber-attacks.
Best practice is not just a practical and physical exercise though, it is an important education to all employees to support the overall protection of IT systems across a business.
As sophisticated as our digital technology is today, so too are the scams, systems and processes used by attackers to penetrate systems. It’s easy to assume it’s these sophisticated attacks that find ways to exploit systems, but that is not the case.
Unfortunately, where there are people, there are often problems and simple human errors, lazy attitudes and ignorance are often the easy access keys that hackers use to unlock and access systems.
Cyber Essentials certification supports to practically protect hardware, software and buildings. It also provides educational learning to all your staff members, no matter what job role they are in, that form the base layer of protection your business needs.
What is Cyber Essentials?
Cyber Essentials is a UK Government approved certification. It supports businesses to be cyber aware and provides five core controls that have been developed to protect businesses against the most common cyber-attacks, if implemented correctly.
A business completes a self-assessment questionnaire that highlights where and how you can protect your employees, IT devices and buildings. The self-assessment questionnaire must then be signed off by a Cyber Essentials Independent Assessor.
Although Cyber Essentials is a self-assessment questionnaire, businesses will often contract IT Support companies such as BlueRock IT to support them to understand and implement requirements for certification.
What is Cyber Essentials Plus?
In addition to the self-assessment questionnaire of Cyber Essentials, to achieve Cyber Essentials Plus accreditation you must also pass a technical audit of your IT systems. These physical audits, verify that controls are in place, checking devices and services that are accessible via internet access.
Who’s who in Cyber Essentials Certification?
CESG
The original government department that first recognised the need and developed the Cyber Essentials programme.
NCSC – National Cyber Security Centre.
Part of the GCHQ (Government Communications Headquarters) and are the technical authority for cyber threats.
IASME – Information Assurance for Small and Medium Enterprises
Appointed as NCSC Cyber Essentials Delivery Partner in 2020.
BlueRock IT Are Cyber Essentials Plus Certified
As a Cyber Essentials Plus certified business since 2021, with continuous annual renewals, we know everything you need to know to achieve accreditation for your business.
BlueRock IT have supported businesses of all sizes and from a wide range of sectors. We support businesses to understand and apply the five core controls of the self-assessment questionnaire, to achieve Cyber Essentials accreditation.
Statistics and Impact of 10 Years of Cyber Essentials
As 10 Years of Cyber Essentials are celebrated, the NCSC have released a range of statistics that highlight the success of the Cyber Essentials programme and the need to continue to develop and remain vigilant.
- 7.78 Million cyber crimes were experiences by UK Businesses over the past year.
- 33,836 Cyber Essentials and 10,939 Cyber Essentials Plus certifications were issued in one year from September 2023 to September 2024.
- There were 92% fewer insurance claims made by organisations with Cyber Essentials controls in place.
- 40% of smaller organisations implemented the controls for the first time.
The NCSC have produced a 10 Years of Cyber Essentials timeline and further information booklet that you can download by clicking this link here
Does A Small Business Need Cyber Essentials?
It does not matter what size your business is, you should plan to achieve Cyber Essentials certification at the earliest opportunity.
It does not matter what size your business is, you should plan to achieve Cyber Essentials certification at the earliest opportunity.
Small businesses are just as vulnerable as large businesses; arguably more so.
The effects of an attack on a small business can be more devastating, as they simply cannot afford the financial impacts of an attack, such as ransoms, time off-line, cost to fix and protect, brand reputation, stress and emotional effects on individuals.
Not only will Cyber Essentials certification better protect your business, it will also:
- Demonstrate your business understands the importance of protecting other people’s data.
- Educates employees for the benefit of both the company and their own personal awareness to cyber-crime.
- Supports with tender and contract applications, especially when trying to win work with larger organisations and government agencies.
- Demonstrates to criminals that you take security seriously and so can act as a deterrent to waste time attempting to attack your organisation.
- Helps you plan for IT asset updates, purchasing and budgeting.
To find out more about improving and understanding your IT security and Cyber Essentials Certification, contact us on 0333 050 9339 to see how we can support you.