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Cyber Essentials And Cyber Essentials Plus Accreditation
The whole Cyber Essentials concept is a very simple and effective government backed initiative to help and enable businesses from all sectors of industry and size to become secure from any cyber-attack. By becoming Cyber Essentials accredited not only proves you an have awareness of the dangers of Cyber threats but also proves your commitment to your clients and suppliers that you as a business take your Cyber Security seriously.
The Government have collaborated with the Information Assurance for Small and Medium Enterprises (IASME) consortium and the Information Security Forum (ISF) to assess Cyber Attacks against businesses and found that by having and implementing some basic “Controls”, Cyber-attacks could be stopped or significantly mitigated. The Cyber Essentials concept or scheme is made up of this set of five basic “Controls”.
There are 2 levels or certifications of Cyber Essentials, namely Cyber Essentials and Cyber Essentials Plus
Cyber Essentials: Cyber Essentials is a self-assessment where you the business owner should be able to answer questions that provide evidence that you have the five technical controls implemented.
"By becoming Cyber Essentials accredited not only proves you have awareness of the dangers of Cyber threats but also proves your commitment to your clients and suppliers that you as a business take your Cyber Security seriously".
Cyber Essentials Plus: The Cyber Essentials Plus Certification will require an onsite visit by a Cyber Security Specialist to authenticate vulnerability scans of your internal network and internet-facing systems. This will be done together with a self-assessment security questionnaire and the questionnaire will also be authenticated by a Cyber Security Specialist. Before a certification can be awarded an on-site visit by a certified assessor will be carried out.
The 5 Key Controls
- Firewalls - Firewalls stop unauthorised access to and from private networks but must be set up correctly to be effective from external threats.
- Secure configuration - Configure computers and network devices to reduce vulnerabilities and only provide necessary services.
- User access control - User accounts, particularly those with special access or admin privileges, should be assigned only to authorised individuals. They must be managed effectively, and provide the minimum level of access to applications, computers and networks.
- Malware protection - Protecting against a broad range of malware will protect your computers, your privacy and your important documents from attack.
- Patch management - All devices and software are prone to technical vulnerabilities. Cyber criminals can rapidly exploit vulnerabilities once they’ve been discovered and shared publicly. It is crucial to do this as quickly as possible to close any opportunities that could be used to gain access.
What to do next
Here at Control IT Solutions, we have a proven track record helping and assisting hundreds of clients with our secure and reliable Managed Services and Cyber security. If you would like an informal chat to find out more and how we can be of benefit your businesses IT infrastructure, please call us on Perth 01738 310271 or Glasgow 0141 428 4301 or click here to make contact via email.
