Accreditation is recommended for any company that stores both company and client data, is governed by GDPR requirements, or simply has a desire to improve their IT infrastructure security.

As it is a Government-mandated scheme, any organisation looking to tender for work with a public-sector body will be required to have met the Cyber Essentials standard and is an increasingly more common requirement for tender applications in the private sector.

In addition to this, heavily regulated industries like Medical, Legal and Financial, where more sensitive client data is stored, may wish to use the Cyber Essentials framework to help with compliance.

In the legal sector, The Law Society references Cyber Essentials as a “should have” in both their Lexcel and CQS Management Frameworks.

Cyber Essentials requires only basic information security hygiene measures to be in place, which when implemented correctly, will significantly reduce the level of vulnerability to external cyber-attacks.
Applicable to organisations of any shape and size; the scheme has 5 critical controls

1. Secure information
2. Firewalls
3. Access control
4. Malware protection
5. Patch management

Centre for Assessment offers three levels of assessment and certification for the Cyber Essentials scheme. Each assessment type offers different benefits and is applicable to a wide range of companies and industries. 

1. Cyber Essentials Basic is a self-assessment driven scheme, whereby applicants review their IT infrastructure via an application document. Once completed, this is then returned to Centre for Assessment for review. This scheme is recommended for smaller businesses looking for entry-level cyber protection compliance.
2. Cyber Essentials Plus offers a much more comprehensive assessment, whereby applicants complete and return a more in-depth application document, which assesses IT infrastructure in greater detail. This assessment type also involves penetration testing, mobile device testing and on-site assessment by an ACE registered assessor, who will access the required network and test for any weaknesses or vulnerabilities that may not have been previously found. A full, comprehensive report is then given to the client to highlight findings during the assessment, and any improvements that need to be made to ensure quality Cyber Security. This is then reviewed by the assessor and certification can then be awarded pending results.
3. The new EXTRA scheme covers all the important details of both the Basic and Plus levels of assessment, however, this also includes a full pre-assessment evaluation of client systems, which is then fully reported on. We then work with clients to help improve and manage systems from the findings of the pre-assessment and help to ensure that any issues are rectified. Once satisfied, you would then be assessed under the scheme rules, following the same process as Cyber Essentials PLUS. If for any reason the standard is not met, this level of assessment will also cover a FREE re-assessment to ensure that clients are given ampler opportunities to ensure that their systems meet the scheme rules. This is recommended for companies that are looking to ensure that they meet the standard with as much support and information as available.