Cyber Essentials accreditation shows your business can be trusted online

The importance for businesses to build strong cyber security protections continues to rapidly increase, as they understand the damaging effects that a security breach by online criminals can have.

By Sarah Green, business manager - cyber security, Training 2000

The financial loss which can occur is often dramatic and in some cases can shut small or medium sized businesses down, whilst the loss of reputation suffered when sensitive data such as the email addresses, passwords and other personal information of customers can cause untold damage to an overall brand, resulting in a loss of confidence and ultimately, custom.

With the effort, time and often cost it takes to make sure that a business is protected, showcasing this to current and potential customers is key as it highlights the importance of online security and the value of customer information – meaning they can do business with peace of mind that the relevant safeguards are in place.

This is why companies across the region and beyond are not only taking these threats more seriously but are also keen to shout about it - the government backed Cyber Essentials certification is increasingly being used across industry to highlight a company’s good practice in working to prevent many of the most common cyber breaches – with evidence showing that through implementing each point needed to achieve the accreditation, risks of infiltration can be reduced by up to 80%.

In supply chains within a range of sectors, evidencing this good ‘cyber hygiene’ is a real benefit when bidding to sign new contracts – and in some cases supply lines are stipulating this as a requirement, for example all Ministry of

Defence contracts do so and as businesses increasingly take into account the importance of cyber security the number demanding some evidence that safeguards are in place will only grow.

With this in mind, it is important to remember that SME’s and worldwide corporations alike have to take steps in protecting their profits and sensitive data, and Cyber Essentials provides an accessible way to do this – taking the form of a questionnaire where a business is required to highlight the systems they have in place – both in terms of IT and also wider staff awareness.

Gaining this widely recognised certification will give faith to customers that you can be trusted with their information. Data breaches are in the media increasingly with more people are understanding the risks involved online and proving you do too will only become more important. Our Cyber Security Centre in Nelson delivers an accredited Cyber Essentials course where we can work with your business to successfully achieve the certification.

www.t2000cyber.co.uk