What are the Business Benefits of Cyber Essentials?

What are the business benefits of Cyber Essentials? 

 If you’re a business owner and concerned about your cybersecurity, you may be wondering if your business should gain Cyber Essentials.  

Achieving Cyber Essentials certification is a great way to not only protect your own business, but importantly demonstrate to both your Customers and Suppliers that you take their data security seriously.  Here you can find out why it’s essential to your cybersecurity and the longevity of your business. 

Cybersecurity threats are increasing at an alarming pace, putting all businesses at further risk of a data breach or other cyber-attack. Businesses must protect their data and that of their clients, meaning that it’s more important than ever to ensure that you have the correct cyber security processes, training, apps and management in place. As a business owner you simply can’t afford to be complacent. In January 2022 IT Governance reported that 5,126,930,507 records were breached. 

Your business could easily be next on the list to be targeted, and to assure clients and prospects, that you are dedicated to cybersecurity and the security of their data, you need to be able to provide proof of your cyber security measures, and that means, you need to be looking to obtain Cyber Essentials. 

Cyber Essentials is a UK Government certification programme, that confirms the cybersecurity processes, procedures and preparations are approved and ensure the very basic standard of corporate cyber hygiene. Originally introduced in 2014 it’s now been updated in 2022. By undertaking Cyber Essentials, you’ll reassure your clients, customers investors, partners and prospects that you take cybersecurity seriously and have taken proven steps to protect their network and their data. 

Let’s dive deeper into the Cyber Essentials certification, defined the business benefits and look at why you need it for your business. 

What is Cyber Essentials? 

From the NCSS Government website: Cyber Essentials is an effective, Government backed scheme that will help you to protect your organisation, whatever its size, against a whole range of the most common cyber-attacks. 

Cyber-attacks come in many shapes and sizes, but the vast majority are very basic in nature, carried out by relatively unskilled individuals. They’re the digital equivalent of a thief trying your front door to see if it’s unlocked. Our advice is designed to prevent these attacks. 

There are two levels of certification: 

Cyber Essentials 

This is a self-assessment option that gives your business protection against a wide variety of the most common cyber-attacks. Gaining this initial baseline of security is important because being vulnerable to basic attacks can highlight your business as a target for more sinister unwanted attention from cyber criminals. 

Gaining the Cyber Essentials certification provides peace of mind that your defences will protect against the vast majority of common cyber-attacks, simply as cyber attackers are looking for targets which do not have basic cyber security measures and technical controls in place as covered in the Cyber Essentials minimum business cyber security measures. 

Cyber Essentials shows your business and teams how to address those cyber security basics and prevent the most common attacks. 

Cyber Essentials Plus

Cyber Essentials Plus is a more detailed certification, based on the Cyber Essentials certification straightforwardness, and the protections that need to put in place, but for Cyber Essentials Plus a hands-on technical verification is carried out. 

Cyber Essentials certification may even be mandatory for your businesses. 

In order for your business to bid for any  

• public sector,
• charity,
• not-for-profit business or some education establishments such as a university,  

you need to have gained Cyber Essentials. 

Here are some of the business benefits from gaining Cyber Essentials 

• Cyber Essentials insurance cover following certification 
• Dedicated expert cyber security advice from your Cyber Essentials IT Services partner  
• Improved cyber protection from common cyber attacks 
• Increased understanding of the threats to your business and how to manage them 
• Improved data protection, your processes and systems will ensure more effective data management and security 

• Increase your client pool to include public sector clients 
• Bolster your reputation with your clients, prospects suppliers and investors. By gaining a government approved cyber security certification 
• Improve your competitive advantage with certified cyber security measures in place 

 Want to ensure better business cyber security? 

To stand head and shoulders above your competitors and to ensure your data security and that of your clients, gaining Cyber Essentials certification is a must, get in touch with the team at Method IT to discuss your cyber security and how we can help. As a certified Cyber Essentials Plus business and an approved Cyber Essentials Accreditation Body, you can trust us with your Cyber Essentials and cyber security needs. 

If you’d like to book a no-obligation Cyber Essentials consultation, you can do so here: https://info.method-it.co.uk/request-a-no-obligation-cyber-essentials-consultation 

if you’d like to understand more, we’ve created two free Cyber Essentials resources to help you learn more about the scheme, and which CE certification you would want to complete. 

You can download our free resources here: 

Find out how Method IT can assist you to gain your Cyber Essentials and Cyber Essentials Plus certifications.

https://method-it.co.uk/contact