There is plenty of literature relating to the Cyber Essentials program on the governments National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) website. Rather than repeat all that excellent information I’ll answer some of the main questions I get asked.

How do I get certified?

The simplest way is to download the self-assessment questionnaire from our resources page and then give us a call.

You may also wish to visit IASME for further guidance and advice.

How much does it cost? £300 upwards

Currently IASME (the accreditation body) charges £300 for Cyber Essentials self-certification.  In addition, you may have technical services costs. If you have an IT department then in theory, it can cost nothing other than their time. If you have an IT support company then expect them to charge whatever rates you agreed in order to assist with ‘ticking the boxes’ and making any changes as required.

Companies such as ours will of course charge dependant on the usual factors such as seats, infrastructure complexity and remediation of areas of weakness. Typically for small companies this is no more than 1 day

Providing you have the basics in place already such as asset lists, patching, AV, firewall, password management, network controls, VPN etc then it is likely you can avoid any further investment in software.

It should be noted that audits are much more common than you would expect, after all it is self-certification if you get my drift.

The certification only last 12 months.

Can I automate certification?

Yes. We offer a technology that is installed on your systems to monitor all of the Cyber Essentials key elements and provide at the click of button response to audit requests and certification renewals.

Of course the technology will ensure your systems continuously enjoy good cyber hygiene thus keeping you safe – all of the time – not just at audit or renewal.