Get Cyber Essentials Certified with confidence
Choose Cyphere as your Cyber Essentials partner to improve your security posture and demonstrate commitment to cyber security across your customers and supply chain. CE+ Prices start from as low as £899.
NCSC’s Cyber Essentials Scheme, managed by the IASME consortium, aims to bolster SMEs’ cyber security posture against the most common cyber attacks. Achieving cyber essentials plus certification has a direct impact on reducing insurance premiums and demonstrating good levels of security controls.
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What is covered in IASME Cyber Essentials Plus?
Are firewalls in place and configured to protect the organisation’s network from unauthorised access?
Are systems and devices configured securely to reduce the risk of exploitation?
Are security updates applied to systems and devices promptly?
Are user accounts and permissions managed effectively to prevent unauthorised access to systems and data?
Is malware protection configured effectively to protect the organisation’s network from malware infections?
How does CE+ Certification helps your business?
By correctly applying the five essential security controls, the Cyber Essentials program significantly empowers you to reduce the cyber security risks posed by various common cyber threats.
Your company pays lower cyber insurance premiums by demonstrating high level security controls with cyber essentials plus certification
Being Cyber Essentials certified concretely demonstrates your dedication to protecting data and ensuring robust cybersecurity practices within your organisation.
The Cyber Essentials certificate opens the door to collaboration with the UK government and other public sector bodies where Cyber Essentials certification is a pre-requisite for government contracts.
- Cyber Essentials certificates issued within the past year are featured on the IASME website, showcasing your unwavering commitment to safeguarding your and your customers’ data.
- Impact on Cybersecurity Attitudes and Behaviors
The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) has assessed the influence of Cyber Essentials on organisational cybersecurity practices and found that organisations express confidence in their protection, increase supplier confidence, and exhibit heightened awareness of threats.
How to get cyber essentials certified?
For Cyber Essentials certification, it is a three-step process as outlined below. Cyber Essentials Plus certification also includes technical assessments by our accredited IASME cyber essentials assessor, therefore, adding scheduling and audit in the scope.
- Set the scope – Before you begin the certification process, clarifying the certification’s range is essential. All certifications will now go through Danzell’s question set (the latest cyber essentials scheme from April 2026). This could encompass an organisation’s entire enterprise IT infrastructure or a specific subset. Clearly defining the scope is a crucial preliminary step.
- Completion of Self-Assessment Questionnaire (SAQ) – The next phase to achieve basic Cyber Essentials certification involves completing a questionnaire. The SAQ is carefully reviewed to ensure it complies with the scheme’s requirements before submission. Successful submissions lead to the issuance of a basic Cyber Essentials certificate.
- Technical Assessment (Vulnerability Scan, Device and endpoint checks) – This step makes part of the Cyber Essentials Plus certification process. Organisations aiming for Cyber Essentials Plus certification must undergo a comprehensive technical evaluation. This includes a series of internal vulnerability scans and assessments of the in-scope system(s) along with the SAQ (considered as the scope). An external vulnerability scan is conducted on your internet-facing networks and applications to confirm the absence of obvious vulnerabilities. These tests are mostly carried out from a remote location.
- Certification Awarded – Certification is awarded upon successful passing of the technical audit. In case of any weaknesses, the customer is allowed 30 days to provide fixes and schedule the checks. You will receive your Cyber Essentials Plus certificate once the assessment, internal scans, and external scans are completed. If this fails, the customer has 30 days to apply fixes and submit their application before Cyphere , an IASME certification body, awards you cyber essentials plus certification.
Cyber Essentials
- Key Features: Cyber Essentials involves the completion of a self-assessment questionnaire (SAQ).
- Suitability: Cyber Essentials is the appropriate choice if you seek a foundational security certification to demonstrate the presence of basic security controls. Usually, companies do this to prove their compliance requirements as part of public sector engagement, supplier onboarding or similar pre-requisite.
Bolster your company’s image and attract fresh clientele by assuring them of your strong commitment to cybersecurity and proactive security measures.
After agreeing on Cyber Essentials or Cyber Essentials Plus, you’ll be given access to the portal, where you’ll find the electronic self-assessment questionnaire for CE, or submit the one you have. You can then start the application, save your progress, and return to it later.
There’s one answer to this: it depends. Based on your readiness, passing this certification could take a few hours to a few days or weeks. Completing this questionnaire is relatively straightforward and should only take a few hours. If you buy a CE+ certification, we provide you a free readiness check session to help you be prepared to pass in the first attempt. Throughout the process, you will have support from Cyphere’s comply team.
For most organisations, Cyber Essentials Plus certification is practically achievable within a couple of months to six months.
This is possible for organisations with high-security maturity within a few weeks. For medium sized organisations needing the technical security baselines and protections to be implemented, this can easily be a 3-6 month project.
If your organisation plans to achieve CE+ certification, you must do this within three months. For instance, Cyber Essentials certification must be passed within a month window of applying for Cyber Essentials Plus certification.
Failing to meet this criterion will require you to reapply and pay another application fee to restart the Cyber Essentials process.
Businesses across the UK rely on our IASME Cyber Essentials Assessors
Excellent people to work with.
"Very good knowledge of requirement and give us correct findings with excellent remedy to improve our security for our B2B portal site."
Harman was great, really knowledgeable
"Harman was great, really knowledgeable, helpful and on hand to answer any questions. The final report was very clear providing all the technical information."
My experience of the team was 5 star.
"They were so helpful, and their technical delivery and client communication were excellent."
Extremely satisfied
"Extremely satisfied with their approach, speed and end results that I got for my company. Big Thanks."
Experienced Team
"Great experienced team, very knowledgable and helpful, willing to adjust the product to suit the customer. Would recommend."
Professional Work
"A totally professional engagement from start to finish with the highest quality advice and guidance."
High Quality Testing Service
"The service provided by Cyphere is second to none. High quality testing services. Very reliable and professional approach."
Assured Service
"Cyphere provide a personal and assured service, focusing on both pre and post analysis in supporting us to change and embed a security cultured approach."
Recommended Service
"Highly recommend Cyphere for pen testing. The recommendations in the report were comprehensive and communicated so that technical and non-technical members of the team could follow them."
Recommended Pen Testing Service
"Cyphere were great in both carrying out our penetration testing and taking us through the results and remediation steps. We would gladly use them for future projects.
Highly Recommended
"We had penetration tests service for PCI DSS compliance program from the Cyphere! Very professional, efficient communication, great findings that improved our system security posture! Highly recommended!
Exceeded Expectations
"Harman and the team at Cyphere truly are experts in their field and provide an outstanding service! Always going above and beyond to exceed customer expectations.
Skilled Team
I’ve worked with Cyphere on a number of penetration tests in addition to some cyber essentials support and certification! I’ve found them to be highly skilled and professional.
Skilled Team
I’ve worked with Cyphere on a number of penetration tests in addition to some cyber essentials support and certification! I’ve found them to be highly skilled and professional.
Perceptive Reporting
Cyphere undertook pen testing for us recently. The process was very smooth, and the team were flexible in working around our constraints. The report was clear, actionable and perceptive.
Outstanding Cybersecurity Partner
Cyphere has been outstanding partner to our agency. I've tried many in the past but they have been extremely meticulous in getting our systems secured.
Helpful Services
Cyphere has been an excellent partner and helped us achieve our goals with a great level of expertise, communication and helpfulness making the whole process easy to understand and complete.
High Standards
Harman and his team were excellent throughout, they understood and completed the tasks (external penetration test) within tight deadlines to a high standard.
Communicative & Responsive Team
I had an amazing experience working with Cyphere! Their communication was top-notch, making the entire process smooth and efficient. I found their team to be incredibly responsive and attentive to my needs.
Efficient Service
Worked with team at Cyphere for a cyber security assessment, gap analysis etc. The team has delivered a very professional, efficient service at all stages of the process to date.
Why get Cyber Essentials Plus certified with Cyphere?
Cyphere is an accredited certification body recognised by the UK government. Our expert assessors are trained to ensure your organisation meets the Cyber Essentials and Cyber Essentials Plus standards. We are CREST accredited pen test provider, staying up-to-date with the latest threats and vulnerabilities as you’d expect from a team of cyber security experts.
We understand that every organisation is unique. Cyphere doesn’t believe in a one-size-fits-all approach. We ensure that a readiness audit is covered in our quote, providing you peace of mind to aim for first time certification audit pass after any fixes needed from the audit.
Our certification process is designed to be straightforward and efficient without putting customer into application, audit, fail and retest cycles. We help you navigate the complexities of cybersecurity, making achieving and maintaining your certification easy.
Cyphere offers competitive pricing for our services. We believe cybersecurity should be accessible to all businesses, regardless of size. Our cost-effective solutions ensure you get maximum value for your investment. For organisations serious about cyber security maturity that’s more than a tick in the box, we offer these options:
- Cyber essentials certification is included when you procure our services for annual IT security health checks or equivalent penetration testing requirements.
- Suppose you commit to Cyber Essentials Plus along with penetration testing. In that case, we align your CE+ inside the penetration test scope to ensure you don’t pay twice and avail benefits of having security team support for 12 months.
Our commitment doesn’t end with certification. We offer ongoing support, helping you maintain your cybersecurity posture. Our experts are here to answer your questions and assist you in addressing any concerns.
Trust is at the core of what we do. Cyphere has earned a reputation for integrity and professionalism. Service quality underpins everything we do.
Cyphere doesn’t just stop at Cyber Essentials. We offer various cybersecurity services to help you strengthen your defences and stay ahead of threats. From penetration testing to security audits, we’ve got you covered.
