Following hot on the heels of the National Cyber Security Centre’s ‘State of the Cyber Nation’ report, the government has announced a new 75% discount for its Cyber Essentials certification programme.
Aimed at small and medium-sized businesses as part of a national response to enhance resilience against cyber threats, it is also offering recommended Small to Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) free accreditation if they are involved in specific supply chains.
The Cyber Essentials certification will be discounted by 75% for micro businesses and SMEs. This means they could pay as little as £80 and no more than £125 (plus VAT).
Cyber Essentials is the minimum standard of cyber security recommended by government for organisations of all sizes. Developed by the experts at the NCSC, the certification scheme is aligned to five technical controls designed to prevent the most common internet-based cyber security threats.
On top of increasing cyber resilience, organisations with the Cyber Essentials certification and a turnover of less than £20 million also receive up to £25,000 of cyber liability insurance.
The Cyber Essentials First Step Fund will provide eligible micro, small and medium-sized UK businesses a 75% discount on the cost of certification. This discount will be on a first-come, first-served basis for those businesses that have not been certified in the last four years. It will be available until March 2027, or until the allocated funding runs out.
Another element is the Cyber Essentials for suppliers grant, worth up to £7 million until March 2029. This grant will be available to eligible UK-based SME suppliers of Cyber Resilience Pledge signatories – these are over 230 businesses across industry sectors, that have signed up to the ‘pledge’ to help them safeguard their supply chains and ensure they have the essential protections in place.
Those companies can apply for fully-funded, first-time certification and tailored Cyber Advisor support through Cyber Essentials. SME businesses nominated for this offer will be contacted by their Cyber Resilience Pledge signatory organisation and guided to apply through the Cyber Essentials process.
The government estimates approximately 8000 businesses could benefit from this funding.
Cyber Essentials certification includes:
- Firewalls, creating a security filter between the internet and the network.
- Secure configuration, setting up computers securely to minimise ways that a cyber-criminal can find a way in.
- Security update management: to prevent cyber criminals from using vulnerabilities they find in software as an access point to your systems.
- User access control: control who can access your data and services and what level of access they have.
- Malware protection includes identifying and immobilising viruses or other malicious software before it has a chance to cause harm.
If you would like to discuss how your organisation can improve its digital resilience, please get in touch. We offer this and other IT services to organisations who wish to pre-empt cyber attacks and protect themselves without the cost of running a permanent IT team. Find out more about our IT Consultancy Services.
