What are the business benefits of Cyber Essentials Certification?
Cyber Essentials and Cyber Essentials Plus are Government-backed security schemes designed to help organisations assess and improve their cyber security practices.
Pass either certification, and you can feel at ease knowing you’ve protected your business against some of the most common threats.
But you also get a ton of benefits that might not be obvious at first.
You see, Cyber Essentials doesn’t just protect your business against the most common online threats, it also opens the door to more business opportunities, helps you meet industry regulations and prepares your business for more rigorous cyber security certifications in the future.
In this article, we’ll cover everything you stand to gain from becoming Cyber Essentials certified and show how you can guarantee a pass with Method IT.
Protect Your Business Against Common Cyber Attacks
Let’s not beat around the bush, the biggest benefit of Cyber Essentials is the improvement it can bring to your business’s cyber security posture.
Almost half of UK small and medium businesses will experience a cyber attack at some point. But becoming Cyber Essentials certified can reduce your company’s cyber risk by up to 98.5%.
That’s because a majority of attacks exploit basic weaknesses, which are exactly the kinds of issues Cyber Essentials addresses. These include:
As part of Cyber Essentials certification, you’ll undergo a self-assessment process that ensures your IT security posture aligns with established best practices. Businesses applying for Cyber Essentials Plus certification will require a technical audit by an independent third party , which will give them even more reassurance that they meet these requirements.
If the added security and protection from cyber attacks wasn’t enough, Cyber Essentials certification also helps your business adhere to data protection regulations like GDPR.
While compliance with GDPR will require more than Cyber Essentials on its own, the certificate's focus on key technical controls demonstrates your organisation has a governance system in place for protecting user data.
Businesses are more aware of the risk of cyber attacks than ever and want to partner with organisations that take cyber security and data protection seriously. After all, if a business gets attacked, it may put the data of a supplier or customer at risk, too.
That means there’s a significant business benefit to becoming Cyber Essentials certified and proving it by displaying the certification badge on your website and marketing materials. You also get added to IASME’s publicly available database of certified organisations.
Having a Government-backed accreditation that showcases your robust cyber security measures can help you win new business from security-conscious organisations and reassure existing customers that you will continue to keep their data safe.
Lucrative government contracts can be the making of small businesses. But they aren’t open to everyone. The UK Government now requires you to have Cyber Essentials certification before bidding for any contract involving technical services or the handling of sensitive information.
Even if you’re not bidding for these specific types of contracts, a Cyber Essentials certificate can be a significant factor in vendor selection processes, given its added security.
Insurance companies care more than ever about your cyber security measures, and many offer reduced premiums for businesses that can prove their readiness with Cyber Essentials certification.
What’s more, organisations that achieve Cyber Essentials certification and have a turnover of under £20 million are entitled to £25,000 worth of Cyber Liability Insurance.
For some businesses, Cyber Essentials is a necessary starting point on a longer journey to more rigorous certification.
The measures you incorporate as part of your Cyber Essentials certification are excellent preparation for more in-depth certifications, including ISO 27001 and IASME Cyber Assurance. In fact, you must have a Cyber Essentials Plus certificate to apply for IASME Cyber Assurance.
Cyber Essentials certification is about much more than improving your security posture or acquiring a badge of honour. It’s an important and valuable investment in your business. By obtaining this certification, you can enjoy better security, a competitive advantage, reduced costs, and free cyber security insurance.
When it comes to getting certified, there’s no one better to help than Method IT. We are an official Cyber Essentials Certification Body, which means we meet IASME’s strict security and quality requirements in order to evaluate and approve your Cyber Essentials application.
Find out how Method IT can assist you to gain your Cyber Essentials and Cyber Essentials Plus certifications.
https://method-it.co.uk/contact