Cyber Essentials

 Pentest People are a Cyber Essentials Certifying Body and can provide a consultancy service to help you at all stages of your Cyber Essentials accreditation journey.

Cyber Essentials is a UK Government led and industry-backed scheme that helps organisations of all sizes protect themselves against common cyber-security threats.

From the 1st October 2014, the UK Government requires all suppliers bidding for contracts involving the handling of certain sensitive and personal information to be certified against the CE scheme.

There are currently two levels of certification, Stage 1 which is the basic level and Stage 2 which is also referred to as Cyber Essentials Plus. Pentest People can help you understand critical infrastructure cybersecurity in order to secure the full certification at both levels including performing the certification assessment.

Stage 1 

The initial level of Cyber Essentials certification is delivered through SecurePortal as a self-assessment questionnaire that covers the five technical controls and then an external vulnerability scan of your external facing network.

You are assessed against the answers to your questionnaire and the results of the external Penetration Test. Stage 1 certification awards the Cyber Essentials accreditation and the associated use of the logo.

Stage 2 

The more advanced level of Cyber Essentials certification relies upon the same protections as Stage 1 but the certification is carried out on your business premises and also includes an internal vulnerability scan of a common workstation build.

Your antivirus protections both via the web and email are manually tested whilst onsite to ensure that your tools of choice are protecting the level of cybersecurity required to achieve Cyber Essentials Plus.

You are assessed against the answers to your questionnaire and the results of the external vulnerability scan. Stage 2 certification awards the Cyber Essentials Plus accreditation and the associated use of the logo.

In order to achieve Stage 2 certification, you have to first achieve Stage 1 certification.

How Can We Help?

Pentest People are a Cyber Essentials Certifying Body and can perform and accredit you to both Stage 1 and Stage 2 of Cyber Essentials.

As well as the certification, Pentest People can also offer penetration testing services including a GAP analysis against the 5 technical controls to ensure that you have adequate controls in place before you undertake a paid Stage 1 assessment.

Take a read through IASME’s Cyber Essentials Information.

More information can be found on the NCSC Cyber Essentials Homepage.