CyberEssentials

What do I need to do? help getting this done!

Many businesses are finding that they struggle to bid on contracts, obtain insurance, or meet demands from their professional bodies, forcing them to finally consider the absolute basics of cybersecurity.

There is clear evidence that investing in cybersecurity is good value for your business

Cyber Essentials is self-reported, so you can, unfortunately, just tick off that you meet the requirements. (We unfortunately have seen this several times)

I wonder what the directors think will happen in terms of legal ramifications when they experience a breach?

With the average small business spending between 100,000 – 1,000,000+ on a cyber breach, I’m not sure it’s worth the risk as your cyber insurance would be invalid. I really don’t want to get that call, so get your house in order!

It’s the responsibility of the company directors to ensure this process is carried out correctly.

How much does it cost?

The certificates themselves cost:

• £350
• £1500 for Cyber Essentials Plus

But that doesn’t include any of the other costs.

What information will I need?

Before we start, the bare minimum you will need is:

• You will need to audit all your hardware and software including:
  • Makes of PCs, Laptops, and Mobiles used for the business
  • Software installed including versions – Especially office versions and browser versions, we use your remote monitoring and management software to do this.
  • Firewalls and settings
• Policies and procedures
• All your systems need to be in a supportable state and no obsolete equipment or software.
• Your remote monitoring and management software should also ensure your updates are being applied automatically.

Once we have identified any issues, we can work through the checklists and ensure everything is correct.

Budget?

You should be spending at least £300 per staff member per year on cyber tools, BUT many things, like using good unique passwords and multifactor authentication, cost ABSOLUTELY NOTHING.

If your systems are very old and obsolete, we can help you get the process moving and work with you to find the budget to get this done as many businesses are paying way over the odds for their IT in some areas and underspending in other areas.

Next steps

Book a call and we can review what you need and give you an estimate of the costs and timescales.