Cyber Essentials Certification

Firstly starting the process will involve a conversation between your organisation and our team here at The Unite Group (as your certification body) to define the scope. Certification can apply to your full organisation’s enterprise IT or a subset.

Secondly the next step is then to complete the self-assessment questionnaire. We will assist by reviewing your application before submission to ensure it meets the Cyber Essentials scheme requirements.

This is the end of the Cyber Essentials scheme and successful applicants will be notified and receive their certificate.

For those who partake in Cyber Essentials Plus, your organisation will then be required to have a technical audit which will include an internal vulnerability scan as well as tests of the in-scope systems and self-assessment questionnaire.

An external scan is then carried out of your internet-facing networks and applications. This is done to verify that there are no vulnerabilities. These tests are conducted off-site.

Once both the on-site assessment and external scans have been reviewed and approved, successful Cyber Essentials Plus applicants will receive their certification.

Achieving the certification gives you peace of mind that you have the bare minimum cyber security measurements in place to protect your organisation against the most common basic cyber threats. It also demonstrates to your customers that you take cyber security seriously. As well as opening the door to new opportunities such as applying for government and MOD contracts.

 This is completely dependent upon your organisation. We can help ensure you have all the necessary measures in place as well as the evidence needed before beginning your application. Following on it is then dependent upon how long you take to submit the self-assessment questionnaire. After submission, you can expect to hear if your application is successful within 14 days. 

The process will be longer for Cyber Essentials Plus candidates as the internal & external scans will also be conducted after the self-assessment.

Our team here at The Unite Group is qualified to both assist with the process as well as assess candidates for the Cyber Essentials scheme. Only certification bodies that have been trained and are currently licensed by IASME to certify against the government’s Cyber Essentials scheme can undertake assessments and issue certificates. We work in partnership to be able to provide the Cyber Essentials Plus Certification. 

You can display your Cyber Essentials certification badge on:

• Your website,
• Email signatures,
• Promotional Materials,
• Letterheads.

The Cyber Essentials certification mark can be found on the ISAME portal which you will receive access to upon a successful application. It can only be displayed by organisations that have passed within the past 12 months.

Yes! Although ISO 27001 is a more complex certification, some potential clients will specifically require a Cyber Essentials certification therefore both are useful to have.

If you are considering applying for both, we recommend doing this at the same time for efficiency. However, if resources are limited we recommend starting with Cyber Essentials before moving on to ISO 27001.