Cyber Essentials for Kent Businesses
Lock down your data. Unlock your potential.
Why Cyber Essentials Matters for your Business
Cyber Essentials delivers measurable value across the protection, productivity and potential of your business.
Ready to take the first step?
Obtaining Cyber Essentials is a technical process, and we want to provide businesses with everything they need to improve their cybersecurity and potential.
By filling out this form, you’ll gain access to our complete guide to the Cyber Essentials process. This includes an in-depth checklist for you to measure your business against before you spend money on external verification or audits.
What is Cyber Essentials?
People consider cybersecurity a recent buzzword, but Cyber Essentials was launched by the government back in 2014, and is managed by the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC).
Security frameworks like this define essential technical controls and best practices that reduce your exposure to cyber risks — keeping your business, customers, and data safe from the most common cyber threats. Some of these include: Email phishing, Ransomware network attacks
Cyber Essentials Basic is the entry point — a self-assessment that will give you an insight into your security posture. It’s a great first step and shows that you’ve got the basics covered.
This can be a good way to quickly show some level of certification, but our research indicates that due to the nature of self-assessments, this badge is losing it’s influence when applying for tenders and insurance.
Cyber Essentials Plus is the gold standard, as it involves external verification through auditing and testing your systems, policies and processes to ensure you’re doing what you say you are.
The assessment is identical, but most importantly, you’re held accountable for your security and given a chance to prove that you are a secure, reliable and forward-thinking business.
This level of certification is becoming more favourable in tenders and contracts across all industries.
Think of it as the foundations of good cyber security, built around five vital areas of your IT infrastructure, protecting you from the most common online threats: phishing, ransomware, and network attacks, to name a few.
These areas cover both types of Cyber Essentials – Basic and Plus.
Control Area
Key Requirements (from NCSC v3.2)
1. Firewalls
Protect your network with strong firewall controls that block unwanted access. Our Kent IT services ensure only safe, necessary traffic reaches your systems
2. Secure Configuration
Reduce risk by removing default settings, unused software, and accounts. Our IT support engineers team helps configure your systems securely from day one.
3. User Access Control
Grant system access only where it’s needed. We help you manage user roles and permissions to keep sensitive data safe and aligned with Cyber Essentials standards.
4. Malware Protection
Stop viruses and ransomware before they spread. We provide proactive cybersecurity for businesses with antivirus tools, monitoring, and user training.
5. Security Update Management
Stay protected with regular updates and security patches. Our cybersecurity experts ensure vulnerabilities are fixed fast to keep your business secure and compliant.
How to get Cyber Essentials certified
There are two options when looking to obtain certification:
Cyber Essentials Complete Guide
When going for either level of certification, it is essential that you provide an accurate picture of your business’ cyber security to the accrediting body.
If you feel that you may lack the technical knowledge, or feel ready to apply but don’t know where to start, get in touch with us here to gain access to our bespoke guide for businesses.
Our Cyber Essentials Roadmap will take you through the entire process of attaining this certification, regardless of your business size and complexity.
Get in touch!
If you have any questions, or would like to enquire about some of our services, book a free discovery call with our Managing Director to start your Cyber Essentials journey.
Already have Cyber Essentials?
Whether you’re looking to maintain your certificate, or looking at pushing for Plus, working with an experienced IT partner can give you the confidence in your cybersecurity.
We see a number of businesses taking shortcuts just to get the badge, but unless externally verified, your business and your people could be liable in the event of a cyber attack, and that Cyber Essentials badge could lose its influence.
Save time and money by doing it the right way, first time round.