Optimising IT Achieves Cyber Essentials and Cyber Essentials Plus Certification Again

Optimising IT is happy to announce our renewal for Cyber Essentials and Cyber Essentials Plus certification. 

Maintaining these certifications is a big priority for us, and we put it down to our amazing team who prioritise cyber security for our own operations as well as our clients, continually setting the right standards to improve risk management. 

Partnering with a company that is Cyber Essentials certified puts your business in a more secure position and provides the opportunity to get certified yourself through expert guidance. Let’s break down what this renewal means for both us and our client base. 

What Cyber Essentials and Cyber Essentials Plus Mean

Cyber Essentials

Cyber Essentials (CE) is a government-backed certification scheme that shows a company has implemented key security measures that address common cyber threats and prevents them from causing harm, via malware or phishing attacks, for example. There are five key controls a business must implement to be certified, including:

• Firewalls
• Secure Configuration
• User Access Control
• Malware Protection
• Patch Management

Any business can conduct a self-assessment to become Cyber Essentials certified. 

Cyber Essentials Plus

Cyber Essentials Plus (CE+) goes a step further and is a more comprehensive version of the initial certification. It requires an approved assessor to conduct an audit on a business’s security measures, assessing whether they can withstand cyber attacks. 

As it’s an external assessment, having CE+ certification provides added assurance that a business is committed to protecting its own, its customers’ and its suppliers’ data. 

Why Maintaining Certification Matters

While it’s good to achieve Cyber Essentials certification, it’s even better to maintain it. This is because cyber threats are constantly evolving, with the likes of shadow AI and social engineering tactics being high risks to businesses of all sizes. By maintaining a CE or CE+ certificate, it shows that a business is continuously keeping up with the evolving cyber attacks criminals are using. 

Maintaining Cyber Essentials certification demonstrates a genuine commitment to cyber security. At Optimising IT, we advise clients on Cyber Essentials every day. We’re also a Certification Body and an NCSC (National Cyber Security Centre) Assured Cyber Advisor, who can help your business achieve CE and CE+ certification. 

In short, we provide a roadmap detailing the standards your business needs to follow and the security measures that require integration to achieve these valued accreditations. 

Four Accreditations That Demonstrate Our Commitment

You won’t find many IT service providers with as many accreditations as Optimising IT that showcase commitment to cyber security. Here’s what accreditations we hold and what they mean:

• Cyber Essentials – demonstrates our commitment to protecting data and keeping client information safe from evolving cyber threats.
• Cyber Essentials Plus – we have been independently verified by an assessor who has run vulnerability scans and tested our systems to ensure our defenses actually work. 
• NCSC Assured Cyber Advisor – we have been backed by the NCSC as an approved advisor for businesses looking to become Cyber Essentials certified. Following the same strict standards, we can help businesses achieve key accreditations that provide high value.
• ISO 27001 – This is the top-tier cyber security accreditation we proudly have, and is a globally recognised standard that proves our commitment to protecting sensitive data and following all regulatory compliance concerning GDPR. 

What This Means for Our Clients

Being Cyber Essentials certified, as well as holding ISO 27001, is highly beneficial for the clients we work with. Our cyber security measures have been proven to be more than sufficient and proactively secure, protect and monitor sensitive data and information. 

As certified advisors, we can also provide practical guidance for businesses looking to receive Cyber Essentials and Cyber Essentials Plus certification. It not only will give your business a competitive advantage, helping to attract security-conscious partners and customers, but also place the right security measures to reduce the risk of data breaches, disruptions, malware and other types of threats. 

Need Help Achieving Cyber Essentials?

Another year means another renewal for Cyber Essentials certification at Optimising IT. If you’re looking for help in getting your business certified and putting improved security measures in place, we can help. 

Contact Optimising IT for a free 30 minute consultation if you want to understand the certification process, aren’t sure whether your business meets CE requirements or you need a bespoke roadmap on how to improve cyber security.