Cyber Essentials & Plus
Securing your technical perimeter baseline. Practical gap analysis and infrastructure configuration alignment to ensure a first-time pass.
what is it & core principles
Cyber Essentials is a UK government-backed framework supported by the NCSC (National Cyber Security Centre). It sets out five foundational technical controls that organizations should implement to mitigate the vast majority of common cyber attacks. Cyber Essentials Plus involves the same controls but includes a hands-on technical verification by a certified assessor.
The core principles revolve around secure configuration, access control, patch management, malware protection, and firewalls/routers. These establish a strong, resilient baseline for your IT infrastructure.
why you need it
Beyond protecting against 80% of standard cyber threats, Cyber Essentials is often a mandatory requirement for bidding on UK government or public sector contracts. Furthermore, holding the certification demonstrates to clients, partners, and investors that your organization takes information security seriously.
For growing startups and SMEs, achieving this certification acts as a crucial differentiator in competitive B2B sales cycles.
how verd standard can help
We do not just hand you a questionnaire and wish you luck. We embed with your IT team to technically align your systems with the framework's strict requirements.
Our engineers review your active configurations, from cloud environments to endpoint MDM policies, ensuring your technical setup is robust enough to pass both the basic self-assessment and the more rigorous CE+ technical audit.
our process
1. Discovery & Gap Analysis: We map your entire IT estate, identifying all in-scope devices, cloud services, and network infrastructure.
2. Technical Remediation: We work directly alongside your teams to apply necessary patches, configure firewalls, and lock down user permissions.
3. Pre-Audit Assessment: Before submitting your application, we conduct a mock audit CE+ to ensure compliance without costly re-tests.
4. Certification: We handle the submission process through certified bodies, managing any assessor feedback directly until the certificate is awarded.