Government Cyber Essentials Scheme backed by Amshire.

A local IT solutions provider is supporting the UK Governments recently launched Cyber Essentials scheme in the wake of rising security threats and cyber-attacks against businesses and organisations.

Stockport based Amshire says time is of the essence to improve digital defenses and is recommending CYBER ESSENTIALS, a scheme that is becoming recognised as a valuable roadmap and kite mark for businesses wishing to improve their cyber security and provide evidence that they meet minimum standards.

Developed by Government and industry, the scheme aims to fulfil two key roles:
1. to provide a clear statement of the basic controls all organisations should implement to mitigate the risk from common internet based threats and

2. through the scheme’s ‘Assurance Framework’ it offers a mechanism for organisations to demonstrate to their customers, investors, insurers and others that they have taken the essential precautions.

Amshire’s founder and chairman Trevor Taylor explains: “Cyber Essentials offers a sound foundation of basic cyber hygiene measures that all types of organisations can implement and then build upon. By implementing these measures an organisation’s vulnerability can be significantly reduced.

Cyber Essentials sheme, helping businesses to stay protected

“However, the scheme does not provide a silver bullet to remove all cyber security risk; for example, it is not designed to address more advanced, targeted attacks. Organisations facing these threats will need to implement additional measures as part of their security strategy.

“What Cyber Essentials does do is define a focused set of controls which will provide cost effective, basic cyber security for organisations of all sizes.”

Assurance Framework

The framework consists of two stages, leading to two levels of accreditation or ‘badges’ – Cyber Essentials and Cyber Essentials PLUS.

Accreditation

Cyber Essentials accreditation involves undertaking the following, with completion of stage 1 being a prerequisite to stage 2:

Business benefits

Gaining accreditation delivers a number of key benefits to your business.  These include:
– Peace of mind that your business is protected against the majority of common cyber-attacks
– Identification of areas for further improvement
– Visible evidence that your business has taken a rigorous approach to protecting itself by displaying either the
Cyber Essentials or Cyber Essentials PLUS logo
– Ability to respond to public sector tenders which now require accreditation for any supply that involves handling
of sensitive and personal information or provision of certain technical products and services.

Making it happen – read the full article at Amshire