Why your business will benefit from Cyber Essentials

What is a Cyber Essentials certification?

Cyber Essentials is a government-backed scheme launched by the Department for Business, Innovation, and Skills in 2014 following a collaboration with the Information Security Forum (ISF), the Information Assurance for Small and Medium Enterprises Consortium (IASME), and the British Standards Institution (BSI).

Cyber Essentials helps to guard your company and customer data against a cyber-attack. It also protects you against the most common cyber threats and shows your commitment to cyber security.

4 Benefits of Cyber Essentials:

1. Protect against common attacks:

Using Cyber Essentials within your business can protect it against common cyber threats. Cybercriminals look to exploit weaknesses, such as out-of-date software or unconfigured firewalls. With Cyber Essentials, these types of attacks are easy to defend against.

While no security strategies will prevent 100% against all cyberattacks, Cyber Essentials will help to limit the threat of the most likely ones by providing a strong base for businesses to work with.

• Bidding for contracts:

To bid for UK Government contracts, it is now mandatory for suppliers to be compliant with Cyber Essentials. Making sure your business has the Cyber Essentials certification can give you an edge over the competition.

• Be GDPR compliant:

Businesses that hold and process customers’ personal information; need to protect this data against fraud and unauthorised access. If an organisation is found to be negligent to GDPR in the event of a breach, the business could face fines of up to 4% of its global turnover.

Following Cyber Essentials can help businesses to be GDPR compliant and prevent heavy fines. Using Cyber Essentials is the first step towards the preparation of GDPR compliance.

• Show you take cyber security seriously:

Customers leave their personal information and data in the hands of a company they trust. A Cyber Essential certificate shows that your company is following all the steps to protect a customer’s information; this will give them the reassurance they need.

Protect your customers and your business:

Making sure you have the correct securities in place has never been more crucial, and the importance is constantly growing. Businesses across the UK and the world need to ensure that their software, hardware, policies, and procedures are kept up to date so that staff are aware of them. If there are any weaknesses, your business becomes vulnerable.

View the Government back scheme here: About Cyber Essentials – NCSC.GOV.UK