What the new Cyber Essentials requirements mean for your business
As technology advances and the world becomes more interconnected, having a strong understanding of cybersecurity is crucial for both individuals and businesses.
In the United Kingdom, the Cyber Essentials scheme is a government-backed initiative that aims to raise awareness of modern cyber threats and help organizations protect themselves against potential attacks. By achieving this certification, businesses can take proactive steps to safeguard their sensitive information and mitigate the risk of cyber threats.
However, starting in April 2023, the requirements for Cyber Essentials Certification will change, and companies will need to meet new criteria to obtain certification. These changes may have significant implications for businesses, making it important to understand and prepare for them.
Staying up-to-date with the latest cybersecurity trends and regulations is essential to protect your business from cyberattacks. By working with experienced managed service providers (MSPs) like ACS, you can receive expert guidance on cybersecurity best practices and ensure compliance with the new Cyber Essentials requirements. This can help you avoid potentially devastating consequences such as data breaches, financial losses, and reputational damage.
Keeping compliant can be a challenge for any business, especially with the growing usage of multiple e-Communication platforms in the business world. If staying compliant has been a challenge for you, find out how Global Relay’s Cloud Archive can help you.
What is the Cyber Essentials Certification
The Cyber Essentials Certification is a UK-based accreditation that aims to educate organizations and businesses on the modern-day virtual world's risks and dangers. It helps companies protect themselves from possible cyberattacks and threats by providing a framework for approaching cybersecurity.
Established in 2014, this certification is part of the UK government's strategy to assist organizations in safeguarding themselves from malicious threats and other virtual risks. While primarily designed for the public sector, private-sector businesses can also benefit from this certification.
Despite the recent significant update, with new requirements introduced just a year ago, the Cyber Essentials scheme is again being updated to address new risks, threats, and other relevant information that has emerged within the past year. It's crucial for organizations to stay informed and comply with the latest certification requirements to protect themselves from potential cyber threats.
Changes to the Cyber Essentials Certification in 2023
Here’s an overview of the changes and clarifications that are made to the guidance within Cyber Essentials in 2023:
User Devices: Rather than having the model of the device listed, only the make and operating system of the device will be required (with the exception of network devices).
Firmware: Only router and firewall firmware must now be kept up to date (as all firmware is classed as software).
Third-Party Devices: More information on how third-party devices (such as from contractors or students) should be handled will be given.
Device Unlocking: Applicants may now use the default setting and configuration for device unlocking (such as the number of incorrect attempts).
Malware Protection: Anti-Malware software will no longer be signature-based and will be clarified as to what kinds are suitable. Sandboxing is no longer suitable.
New Guidance on Zero-Trust Architecture: Plus a note on the importance of asset management.
Style and Language: The document has been reformatted for ease of reading.
Structure Updated: Technical controls have been reordered to align with the updated question set.
CE+ Testing: CE testing has been updated to align with the requirements changes — the biggest change here being the malware protection tests.
These updates are not as large as the updates that came about in 2022 but still are part of the strategy to improve this scheme and make it even better for modern businesses to utilise to their advantage.
In fact, these changes are all based on feedback from applicants and assessors, meaning that they’re all generally quite important changes that improve the scheme significantly.
Are you interested in gaining the Cyber Essentials Certification? Maybe you have your CE renewal fast approaching? If so, reach out to us at ACS. Our team of experts can guide you through the process and ensure that your cybersecurity measures are up to standard.
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Benefits of a Cyber Essentials Certification
Improve Security Posture
Cybersecurity is valuable, which means that it has become quite expensive. The Cyber Essentials Certification is a great way for any company — especially SMBs — to ensure that you’ve got the basics covered to protect your business, without having to spend lots on dedicated cybersecurity personnel.
This certification takes you through the basics of cybersecurity and helps sure that you stay protected from the majority of the attacks that you’d otherwise face. This is why it’s crucial to ensure that you at least use this scheme to ensure that you have the basics covered.
Build Trust with Prospects and Customers
A transaction has two involved parties, and any business wants to make sure that the other party is trustworthy and comfortable to work with.
This certification shows that your company not only takes security seriously but also has the knowledge required to take steps to protect itself (and therefore your customers and prospects).
With this, you can build better relationships and have customers and prospects rely on you more confidently, ultimately resulting in better business opportunities for your organisation — which could be the stepping stone to the pinnacle of success for your company.
Bid for Government Contracts
As mentioned previously, the UK government will allow businesses to work with them if they have the Cyber Essentials Certification.
This is also true for contracted work from the government. The government handles a lot of sensitive data and information, so not investing time and effort into this certification could be a complete hindrance to your business’s chances of working with the UK government.
Whether big or small, a government contract is a huge deal for a large number of companies across the United Kingdom. This means that failing to do such an important prerequisite for this can have large consequences for even bidding for government contracts, let alone obtaining one.
How We Can Help
Cybersecurity is essential in the modern day and age, and so doing anything to help your business face the risks and dangers of the modern virtual world is important to the long-term success of your organisation.
The Cyber Essentials Certification is the best way to learn all the essentials that you need to know when it comes to cybersecurity and is a must-have for any British company looking to ensure that their company prospers in the future. These changes truly help the scheme become better and more informative for every applicant.
If you’re looking to get started with cybersecurity and look into Cyber Essentials, why not contact us today? We’re here to help you through the whole process.