The NCSC created Cyber Essentials, a globally renowned IT standard, which was released in June 2014. It was established to make sure providers and organisations storing, managing, and sharing sensitive data adhered to cyber security guidelines. In addition, it assists businesses in constructing a solid infrastructure intended to reduce cyberattacks from hackers and malicious attack techniques like ransomware.
Organisations have received more than 30,000 certifications. It includes five crucial cyber security measures: malware prevention, access control, and boundary firewalls.
What Does a Cyber Essentials Certification Mean?
Cyber Essentials, which the NCSC manages, was created in conjunction with business partners, the Information Security Forum, and the Information Assurance for Small and Medium-sized Businesses Consortium. The certification’s primary objective is to safeguard the availability, confidentiality, and integrity of corporate data against attacks on the internet.
It is crucial to remember that Cyber Essentials is not a complete cybersecurity strategy but rather a foundational level of due diligence from which to expand. Therefore, Cyber Essentials Plus and Cyber Essentials are two different certificates.
The Cyber Essentials programme tackles the most prevalent Internet-based security risks, in particular, assaults that make use of easily accessible technologies and require little technical expertise. The scheme classifies these dangers as phishing, hacking, and password guessing.
What is the advantage of Cyber Essentials certification?
Your company demonstrates its dedication to cyber security by earning the certification. As a result, data sharing between you and your clients, partners, and suppliers has become more secure. You need to have Cyber Essentials in order to submit a bid for federal projects. Local authorities and most MoD projects require a minimum of Cyber Essentials Plus.
What exactly are the five technical controls?
Cyber Essentials evaluates the five components of your IT architecture listed below:
- Safe Configurations: Instead of using the “default” configuration settings that come with anything enabled, pick the settings for your hardware and software that are the safest. Unluckily, these settings might give online criminals easy access to your data and opportunities for unauthorised access. The use of multi-factor authentication is permitted in secure environments.
- Firewalls: Personal, built-in, or dedicated boundary firewalls can be used to secure Internet connections.
- Patch Management: Regardless of the phones, tablets, laptops, or PCs your company uses, they must be always kept up to date. This is true for both installed apps and software as well as operating systems. This contains end-of-life management guidelines when a vendor stops supporting a piece of hardware or software.
- User Access Management: Staff accounts must have only the minimum amount of control over software, settings, internet services, and equipment connectivity features necessary for them to carry out their duties in order to minimise the possible harm that could be achieved if an account is used improperly or is stolen. Only those who truly require more permissions should be granted them.
- Malware Defence: You must use anti-malware procedures, whitelisting, and sandboxing to protect against malware in order to safeguard both yourself and your company.
Which Cyber Essentials category should you pick?
Self-evaluation is a component of Cyber Essentials. The certification procedure has been simplified and made easy to follow. Following your choice of a certification body, you must respond to the questionnaire it provides. After assessing your responses, they will do an external vulnerability scan on your IP addresses. If all goes according to plan, you will pass and receive a certificate.
For small organisations that want to prove they have the proper essential controls in place, the Cyber Essentials certification is ideal. Contrarily, Cyber Essentials Plus has exactly the same standards as Cyber Essentials, but a key distinction is that it necessitates an outside evaluation of your security measures to confirm that you do, in fact, have the five technological security measures in place.
A vulnerability scan is part of the evaluation and will reveal unpatched or outdated software, open ports, improper firewall setup, etc. The information acquired will direct any corrective measures, guaranteeing that your business will comply with the five technological controls to show excellent information governance practises. You must provide proof that you meet all requirements when the external body reviews your certification.
Although earning the Cyber Essentials Plus certification requires more effort, it is worthwhile because it involves an objective evaluation of your current security measures, which can result in a significant boost in your cyber defences.