Security
Cyber Essentials
Cyber Essentials and Cyber Essentials Plus without the pain: gap assessment, remediation and evidence, delivered by the team that runs your IT day to day.
Certification that reflects reality
Cyber Essentials is the UK’s baseline security certification: five controls, government-backed, and increasingly the price of entry for public sector work, supply chains and sensible insurance premiums. The certificate itself is a questionnaire. The value is an estate that actually meets the controls, and that’s the part we do properly.
The five controls, done for real
Firewalls and internet gateways. Boundary protection configured and documented, default passwords gone, management interfaces locked down.
Secure configuration. Unused accounts and software removed, autorun disabled, sensible defaults enforced across the estate.
Access control. Admin rights limited to those who need them, separate admin accounts, multi-factor authentication where the scheme requires it.
Malware protection. Supported anti-malware on every in-scope device, configured, updating and actually reporting in.
Security update management. The big one: updates applied within 14 days of release, unsupported software removed or isolated. Our patch management service exists for exactly this.
How we get you there
Gap assessment. We review your estate against the current question set and tell you plainly what passes, what fails and what it takes to fix, with a realistic timeline rather than a hopeful one.
Remediation. Patching, configuration, access-control and firewall work delivered by our engineers, using the same tooling that runs our endpoint management and 24×7 IT support services. Legacy systems that can’t comply get isolated and scoped out, the approach we used to take a 2009-era ERP estate through Cyber Essentials.
Assessment and evidence. We prepare the submission with you, and for Cyber Essentials Plus we get your estate ready for the hands-on technical audit: vulnerability scans, workstation checks and email and browser tests.
Staying certified. Certification lasts twelve months. Because the controls map directly onto our managed services, renewal becomes routine housekeeping rather than an annual scramble.
Why Next2IT
Consultancies audit and leave. We’re an MSP: the patching, monitoring and endpoint controls that pass the assessment are the same ones we run for clients every day, from our UK 24×7 operations centre. That’s why our clients don’t just get certified, they stay certified.
The benefits
The benefits of Cyber Essentials
What you gain when cyber essentials is delivered and managed by Next2IT.
Gap assessment first
A clear-eyed review of your estate against the five controls, so you know exactly what passes and what won't.
Remediation, not homework
We fix what the assessment finds: patching, access, firewalls, malware protection and configuration.
Plus-level verification
For Cyber Essentials Plus, we prepare your estate for the hands-on audit and support you through it.
Stay certified
Certification lapses after a year. Our managed services keep the controls in place so renewal is routine.
Contract asking for Cyber Essentials?
We'll assess the gap, fix what fails and get you certified, without the box-ticking theatre.
FAQs
Frequently asked questions
Cyber Essentials is the UK government-backed certification that shows your business has five fundamental security controls in place: firewalls, secure configuration, access control, malware protection and security update management. It's increasingly required for public sector contracts and supply chains, and many insurers now ask about it. Cyber Essentials Plus covers the same controls but adds independent hands-on testing of your systems.
Basic Cyber Essentials is a self-assessment verified by an assessor and is the entry requirement for many contracts. Plus adds an independent technical audit, including vulnerability scans and workstation testing, and carries more weight with enterprise customers, regulators and insurers. If a contract specifies Plus, the choice is made for you; otherwise we'll advise based on who's asking and what your customers expect.
It depends entirely on the gap between your current estate and the requirements. A well-run environment can be assessment-ready in a couple of weeks. An estate with legacy systems, patchy updates and shared admin accounts takes longer, because the remediation is real work rather than paperwork. Our gap assessment gives you an honest timeline up front.
Legacy kit doesn't have to mean failure. Systems that can't be patched or upgraded can be isolated and taken out of certification scope with proper segmentation and controls. We've taken a manufacturer running a 2009-era ERP through Cyber Essentials by containing the legacy tier and modernising everything around it. The write-up is on our blog.
No, and be wary of anyone who offers to. The questionnaire is a declaration about how your estate is actually configured, and a certificate built on wrong answers protects nobody; it just adds liability. We do the opposite: make the estate genuinely meet the controls, then the answers write themselves.
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