Cyber Essentials can help organisations guard against cyber attacks.
A Government backed scheme, Cyber Essentials is a recognised accreditation launched by the NCSC to provide businesses of any size a clear guideline of best practice measures and processes to have in place to help prevent cyber threats to their organisation.
Obtaining certification, not only helps you to be aware of best steps to avoid risks, but provides reassurance to customers and potential new business leads that consistently recognised measures are in place. Additionally, some Government contracts and growing numbers of organisations will stipulate this as a minimum requirement during their tender process.
To help understand what to expect when looking to gain accreditation, here is our Cyber Essentials checklist to guide you.
- Firewalls
- Do you have a firewall in place to protect your network from unauthorized access?
- Is your firewall configured to only allow authorised traffic?
- Is your firewall regularly updated with the latest security patches?
- Secure configuration
- Do you have a process for regularly reviewing and updating the security configuration of your devices and software?
- Do you use strong passwords and password management practices?
- Do you implement multi-factor authentication where possible?
- Access control
- Do you have a process for granting and revoking access to your systems and data?
- Do you only grant access to users who need it?
- Do you monitor user activity for suspicious behaviour?
- Malware protection
- Do you have up-to-date antivirus and anti-malware software installed on all of your devices?
- Do you regularly scan your devices for malware?
- Do you have a process for responding to malware incidents?
- Security update management
- Do you regularly install security updates for your operating systems and software?
- Do you have a process for testing and deploying security updates?
- Do you have a process for tracking and remediating security vulnerabilities?
In addition to these five controls, there are a number of other things you can do to improve your cyber security position, such as:
- Employee training
- Train your employees on cyber security best practices, such as how to identify and avoid phishing scams.
- Make sure your employees know how to report suspicious activity.
- Incident response plan
- Have a plan in place for responding to cyber security incidents.
- Make sure your employees know what to do if they suspect a breach has occurred.
- Business continuity plan
- Have a plan in place for continuing to operate your business in the event of a cyber security incident.
- Make sure your employees know what to do if your systems are taken offline.
By following these steps, you can help to protect your organization from cyber attacks.
Unsure if your organisation has all the Cyber Essentials checklist requirements in place, our experts can help.
Information Solutions provides an effective Cyber Essentials service to organisations.
From exploring your existing IT infrastructure and approach to cyber security, to planning, deployment and integration of tools and resources to meet certification requirements, our consultancy service can be tailored for any organisation.
Speak to the team today to find out how we can help.