Leading Derby technology company L.E.A.D. IT Services is urging businesses to bolster their online defences after joining just one per cent of UK businesses to achieve Cyber Essentials Plus certification.
The company, which works with more than 250 businesses, schools and multi-academy trusts across the UK on their IT provision and management, underwent a rigorous independent audit process to achieve the top level certification.
Managing director Lee Jepson has now urged other businesses to get Cyber Essentials Plus certified to help protect themselves against increasing online threats.
He said: “We are very proud of our Cyber Essentials Plus certification which involved commitment on our part to undergo the process. But I’m concerned at how few other businesses out there have got this level of cyber security. I’d urge other firms to consider it. It’s very important for many reasons. Cyber breaches are increasing all the time and that has serious implications for every organisation. Data breaches are well documented in their impact, particularly for organisations like schools and hospitals, but businesses with an e-commerce function, for example, are just as vulnerable to being compromised.”
The UK Government backed Cyber Essentials scheme comprises two levels of certification: the standard level and the more advanced ‘Plus’.
Basic Cyber Essentials is the minimum standard recommended by the Government for all organisations, yet only around five per cent of UK businesses have completed it. Larger organisations are much more likely to be certified while only a tiny proportion of SMEs (Small to Medium sized Enterprises) have Cyber Essentials.
Meanwhile, the Government’s latest Cyber Security Breaches Survey revealed that over four in ten businesses and around three in ten charities reported a cyber security breach or attack in the last 12 months.
Of those, phishing attacks – where attackers deceive people into revealing private data or installing malware – were by far the most common.
Cyber Essentials Plus certification involves an independent technical audit of a business’s systems, including a vulnerability scan of public facing IP (Internet Protocol) addresses.
As well as providing protection against 98.8 per cent of the most common cyber attacks, it also helps open the door to Government contracts and high value tenders which typically require this level of certification.
Lee said: “Having been through the Cyber Essentials Plus certification process I can highly recommend it to other businesses. People might not know that it does really support you when bidding for high profile tenders. It also gives you top tier protection for your business – as well as peace of mind for your supply chain too that you are doing everything you can to protect against cyber attacks.
“It’s worth remembering that most cyber attacks today aren’t aimed at specific businesses at all. AI-driven bots are constantly scanning the internet for weaknesses – an unpatched system, a misconfigured setting, a gap in procedure – and it’s that gap, not the company behind it, that draws the attack. The Cyber Essentials Plus certification closes those gaps. It doesn’t just protect your devices; it means you can confidently say your policies and procedures are up to the mark too, so there’s nothing for the bots to find.
“If any businesses would like to talk to us about the certification, what is involved, and how we achieved it, they should get in touch.”
