Link Digital Achieve Cyber Essentials Certification

We are now Cyber Essentials Certified

As part of our ongoing commitment to improving our process and standards across our business, we are pleased to say that we are now Cyber Essentials Certified.

What is Cyber Essentials?

Cyber Essentials is a simple but effective, government-backed scheme that will help you to protect your organisation, whatever its size, against a whole range of the most common cyber attacks.

What are the benefits of becoming Cyber Essentials Certified?

There are several benefits of becoming Cyber Essentials certified, including:

Improved cybersecurity: Cyber Essentials is a UK government-backed certification scheme that helps organisations protect themselves against a range of common cyber threats. By obtaining Cyber Essentials certification, you will have implemented measures to protect your IT systems and sensitive data, reducing the risk of a cyber-attack.

Competitive advantage: Having Cyber Essentials certification can give you a competitive advantage, particularly when bidding for contracts or responding to tenders that require suppliers to demonstrate a certain level of cyber hygiene. It can help to reassure potential clients and partners that you take cybersecurity seriously. It is a requirement “for central government contracts which involve the handling of sensitive ad personal information or the provision of certain technical products and services,”

Increased customer confidence: Cybersecurity is becoming increasingly important to customers, particularly in industries that handle sensitive information such as healthcare, finance, and government. Cyber Essentials certification can help to build trust with your customers, who will be reassured that you have taken steps to protect their data.

Compliance with regulations: In some industries, such as finance and healthcare, there are strict regulations in place that require organisations to take certain cybersecurity measures. Cyber Essentials certification can help you to demonstrate compliance with these regulations.

Cost-effective: The Cyber Essentials certification is relatively inexpensive, making it an affordable option for small and medium-sized businesses that may not have a large cybersecurity budget. The certification process is also straightforward, and you can choose to either self-assess or use an external certifying body.

Overall, obtaining Cyber Essentials certification can help to improve your organisation’s cybersecurity posture, give you a competitive advantage, increase customer confidence, and ensure compliance with regulations, all at a relatively low cost.

How much does it Cost?

The cost of Cyber Essentials (verified self-assessment) follows a tiered pricing structure which adopts the internationally recognised definition for micro, small, medium and large enterprises. This starts at £300 + VAT for organisations with up to 9 employees to £500+ VAT for organisations with over 250 employees.

Can I get funding to help with the costs?

This NCSC is helping organisations in sectors most at risk to implement baseline security controls and prevent the most common types of cyber-attacks using the Funded Cyber Essentials Programme.

Who can apply?

To qualify for this scheme, the organisation must either be:
• a micro or small business (1 to 49 employees) that offers legal-aid services
• a micro or small charity that processes personal data, as defined under GDPR

To find out more visit the IASME website

Why Did We Apply for Certification?

“At Link Digital, we take the security of our business and our client’s data very seriously. Achieving Cyber Essentials certification was an important step for us to ensure that we are following best practices and protecting ourselves against cyber threats.”

Mark Smith, Managing Director

We wanted to make sure that we were running a secure business. We were confident that we go above and beyond to keep our customer data and the websites we host secure.

This accreditation will show our clients that we have made the time to seriously review our business practices.

We can use the knowledge and experience gained to advise our clients on the benefits and learnings of the process.

Finally, we are being approached by bigger businesses that have procurement policies and this helps support us when tendering for work.