What are the benefits of the Cyber Essentials scheme?

What is Cyber Essentials?

The Cyber Essentials scheme is a simple yet effective, Government-backed framework that will help protect your organisation against a range of the most common internet-based cyber attacks.

From small-scale start-up to established and growing organisations, the Cyber Essentials scheme will help you reduce the impact of such threats as:

  • phishing attacks
  • malware
  • ransomware
  • password guessing
  • network attacks

The checks take the form of five technical controls which are easy to implement and designed to guard against these threats.

So what are the benefits of getting Cyber Essentials certified?

Here are some of the benefits our customers have found when applying for Cyber Essentials.

Reassure customers that you are working to secure your IT against cyber attack

Showing your organisation has gone to the effort of certifying against the Cyber Essentials scheme is a great way to reassure your customers that you care and are doing things right.

Getting Cyber Essentials or Cyber Essentials Plus certified can also provide a reason to re-engage your customers by sending out a newsletter or blog article informing them of your achievement.

Attract new business with the promise you have cyber security measures in place

By displaying the Cyber Essentials badges on your media, such as website, email signatures, and documentation, you’ll likely appear more creditable and trustworthy to your customer.

Gain a clear picture of your organisation’s cyber security level

When completing the Cyber Essentials self-assessment questionnaire, we find our customers often learn a lot about both cyber security and their organisation. While the questions are simple, the answers often require organisations to think carefully, examine their own policies and procedures and, in some cases, define new ones.

Cyber Essentials is a great catalyst towards formally documenting your organisation’s IT security, and the support and assessor feedback you receive when applying for certification through Cyber Toolkit ensures both you and the assessor form a clear picture of your organisation’s cyber security level.

Bid for contracts which require Cyber Essentials certification

Some contracts or procurement directories require that organisations have Cyber Essentials or Cyber Essentials Plus certification in order to bid. This is the case for central government contracts, the Ministry of Defence, and an ever increasing list of procurement directories and organisations.

Applying for funding

Some funding bodies now require that organisations have Cyber Essentials certification, most notably the Education & Skills Funding Agency has made Cyber Essentials a requirement for organisations it funds.

It may also be beneficial for your organisation to have Cyber Essentials or Cyber Essentials Plus certification when applying for business grants.

Where do I begin?

You can find out all about the process of getting Cyber Essentials certified here, we offer a variety of packages with varying levels of support for both Cyber Essentials and Cyber Essentials Plus. You can read more about the Cyber Essentials scheme in our blog. Feel free to contact us if you have any questions.