Skip to main content

Cyber Essentials ..... Huh?

 A customer asked me the other day if I knew anything about Cyber Essentials. It rang a bell, but I couldn't really think why. A quick search online and found it....

What is Cyber Essentials?

It is an effective, Government backed scheme that will help you to protect your organisation, whatever its size, against a whole range of the most common cyber attacks.

Cyber attacks come in many shapes and sizes, but the vast majority are very basic in nature, carried out by relatively unskilled individuals. They're the digital equivalent of a thief trying your front door to see if it's unlocked.

There are two levels of certification: Cyber Essentials and Cyber Essentials Plus.

So, what does this mean?

Well I went through the questionnaire to find out, and after answering all the questions and in the end got a readiness report with 15 pages giving me an outline on what I should do to become certified. 

Does it cost anything?

Yes! Anything from £300+VAT to £500+VAT (depending on the size of company) per year! - If you want to go for the Cyber Essentials Plus, then prices will be higher (they don't show these on the website!)

Is it compulsory?

No. But some Government Contracts may require you to be Cyber Essentials certified or to be able to demonstrate that the technical controls are in place.

So is it worth doing?

That's something that only you can decide.

Will I become Cyber Essentials certified?

NO! Whilst a certificate on the wall to say you are Cyber Essentials certified does look good, it's a lot of money every year is a bit steep for a Sole Trader to be honest.

It is worth going through the Cyber Essentials readiness toolkit as your responses to the questions will create a personal action plan to help you move towards meeting the Cyber Essentials requirements. And the report includes links to specific guidance on how to meet the requirements.

I'm now off to read the report again.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Windows 11 update could cause SSD/Drive issues .....

Yes, you did read the heading right. There has been a few issues over the past few weeks that a couple of updates for Windows 11 can cause an issue with your SSD (or possibly HDD) having a bit of a hissy-fit and causing crashes/blue-screens etc., and in some cases data corruption or loss! You need to check to see if you have update KB5063878 or KB5062660 (Preview) and if you have either of these, then uninstall them! Once you have uninstalled them, you also need to pause Windows updates because if you don't, the update will be downloaded and installed again. JayzTwoCents on Youtube has done a couple of videos about this, and they are worth a watch. Video - 19th August  (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mlY2QjP_-9s) Video - 30th August  (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TbFIUu_7LIc) If you are running Windows 10, then as far as I can find out, you are safe from the update(s) that are causing this issue. One of the possible causes of the issue is if you are trying to copy large am...
Post a Comment
Read more

Is Windows 10 really not going to be supported after October 14th 2025?

The answer to this, is yes and no! Officially Microsoft is stopping support for Windows 10 on 14th October this year (2025), and have been telling people to upgrade to Windows 11 or buy a new PC/Laptop for a while - whilst this is good for retailers that sell new PC/Laptops, it really isn't good for the environment! There are probably millions of PCs that are perfect in other aspects, but because they don't meet the requirements of Windows 11, they are meant to consigned to the bin, and I for one am not going to tell my customers that the perfectly good PC is now no longer usable! Just because Microsoft are no longer going to support Windows 10 with security updates etc., it doesn't mean that the PC is going to stop overnight (think of a Model T Ford - not been built by Ford for many many years, but put fuel in it and you can still drive it!) So what options do we all have (if we have a Windows 10 PC): Do nothing - not really recommended as the PC will become open to securi...
Post a Comment
Read more

Wi-Fi or Hard Wired connection?

Is WiFi better than a Hard Wired connection? Yes and No 😀 If only it was that simple. It really depends on the device, the Wi-Fi version/speed, and the Ethernet speed. Not that long ago, Ethernet speeds were as low as 10Mbits per second, then we got a speed upgrade to 100Mbits per second and now the standard (though not the fastest) is 1000Mbits per second (also known as Gigabit). You can also get 2.5Gigabit which is becoming the new standard, with 5Gigabit, 10Gigabit and even faster available on high-end equipment. If you use a laptop or tablet (or anything that you move about with) then Wi-Fi is really the only option you have as you really don't want a cable holding you back. A desktop PC, or TV are normally in a single place, so you can run a wire from the router to the device (I know that sometimes it isn't that simple). As you can see in the chart above, the theoretical maximum data rate for Wi-Fi is getting very high (with Wi-Fi 7 saying 46Gbps which is more than 40x th...
Post a Comment
Read more