In this article we discuss what Cyber Essentials Plus is and why we think its an important part of our cyber security strategy.
What are Cyber Essentials?
Cyber Essentials is a UK Government-backed, industry-supported certification scheme introduced to help businesses to defend themselves against the most common cyber threats. There are two levels of certification:
Cyber Essentials
This is a self-assessment option that shows an organisation how they address basic cyber security and how to prevent the most common attacks.
Cyber Essentials Plus
This level of certification is the highest offered under the Cyber Essentials scheme. It’s a much more rigorous process that involves third party, hands-on technical verification assessments being conducted to ensure the organisation is protected against basic cyber-attacks.
Our Cyber Essentials Plus assessment and vulnerability scans were carried out by URM Consulting Services to ensure Shark Finesse met the requirements of five key areas (access control, security configurations, software updates, malware protection and firewall and routers).
We want to go the extra mile with our cyber security, which is why for the last 3 years we have worked towards the Cyber Essentials Plus certification. The Plus certification is the right choice for us as not only does it give us the knowledge that we are protecting ourselves from the majority of cyber-attacks, but we also want our customers to feel confident when they partner with Shark Finesse that we are taking all the extra precautions when it comes to online security.
Shark Finesse Managing Director, Jonathan Keighley said “The level of security due diligence customers have to carry out on 3rd party cloud applications has risen dramatically over the past few years. Cyber Essentials Plus is one of the accreditations that proves data security is one of our top priorities, de-risking decisions when selecting our company as a supplier and differentiating us from the competition.”
URM’S assessor commented that “Shark Finesse has a strong set of controls as part of its cyber security infrastructure. One control that particularly stands out with Shark Finesse is its ability to respond to security threats promptly by having a centrally managed solution in the cloud. By being able to react quickly, the organisation can minimise the potential damage that can be done to a system.”