What is Cyber Essentials?
Cyber Essentials is a certification scheme backed by the UK government and overseen by the National Cyber Security Centre. It sets out five technical controls that protect against the most common internet-borne attacks: phishing, password guessing, and exploitation of unpatched software.
There are two levels. Cyber Essentials is a verified self-assessment. Cyber Essentials Plus uses the same requirements but adds hands-on technical testing by an assessor. Read our plain-English guide: what is Cyber Essentials?
Why UK businesses get certified
- Winning work: many UK public-sector contracts, and a growing number of private-sector supply chains, ask for Cyber Essentials as a minimum
- Reducing risk: the controls block the routine, automated attacks that cause most small-business breaches
- Showing customers you take security seriously with a recognised badge and a public certificate listing
- Insurance and due diligence: underwriters and procurement teams increasingly ask whether you hold it
The five Cyber Essentials controls
Every certification is judged against the same five areas. We cover each in detail in our Cyber Essentials requirements guide.
- Firewalls and internet gateways
- Secure configuration
- Security update management (patching)
- User access control, including multi-factor authentication
- Malware protection
Ready to test yourself? Work through our Cyber Essentials checklist, then see what certification involves on our certification and cost pages.
How Forever Systems helps you get certified
Most organisations fail Cyber Essentials for the same handful of reasons: unsupported operating systems left in scope, missing multi-factor authentication on cloud services, default passwords on routers, and patches that sit for weeks. We find those gaps before an assessor does.
- Readiness review of your devices, cloud services, firewalls and user accounts against the current question set
- Remediation: patching, configuration hardening, MFA roll-out, firewall changes and device management with tools such as Microsoft Intune
- Support through assessment with an IASME-licensed certification body, for both Cyber Essentials and Cyber Essentials Plus
- Staying compliant all year, so renewal is a formality rather than a scramble
Forever Systems Ltd is an IT and cyber security provider; we prepare you for certification and work alongside a licensed certification body, which issues the certificate.
Want to know how close you are to passing?
Talk to Forever Systems on 0333 358 3808 or send us an enquiry and we will come back to you with options, not a hard sell.
Call 0333 358 3808Send an enquiryFrequently asked questions
How long does Cyber Essentials take?
If your IT is already in good shape, the self-assessment can be completed in days. Most of the time goes on fixing gaps such as old devices, missing MFA or overdue patches, which is where we help.
Is Cyber Essentials mandatory?
It is not a legal requirement for every business, but it is required for many UK government contracts that involve handling personal data or providing certain ICT services, and many larger organisations ask suppliers for it.
Do you issue the certificate?
No. Certificates are issued by IASME-licensed certification bodies. We prepare you, fix the issues and support you through the assessment.