If you received an email, a supplier questionnaire, or a contract renewal in the past few months asking whether your business holds Cyber Essentials certification, what would be your answer? It’s one of the most common questions landing on the desks of business owners and operations leads right now, and for many, the immediate reaction is the same: what is it, and what do I actually have to do?
The government’s Cyber Security Breaches Survey 2025/2026 found that 43% of UK businesses experienced a cyber security breach or attack in the last 12 months. Against that backdrop, larger organisations, insurers, and public sector bodies have started applying much greater scrutiny to the businesses they work with, and Cyber Essentials has become the clearest way to demonstrate that your security posture meets an accepted minimum standard.
This blog explains what Cyber Essentials is, who’s asking for it and why, and what the process of getting certified looks like when you have the right IT support in Bracknell behind you.
What Is Cyber Essentials?
Cyber Essentials is a UK government-backed certification scheme, developed and overseen by the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC). Its purpose is straightforward: to help organisations of all sizes put the fundamental protections in place against the most common and preventable forms of cyber-attack.
Rather than being a one-off IT audit or a lengthy compliance exercise, it is a certification awarded by an accredited body once you can demonstrate you have five specific technical controls in place.
There are two levels:
- The standard Cyber Essentials certification involves a self-assessment questionnaire, reviewed and verified by an independent certifying body.
- Cyber Essentials Plus goes a step further, with a hands-on technical assessment carried out by an independent assessor.
For most SMEs receiving this request for the first time, the standard certification is the appropriate and expected level.
One additional benefit worth knowing about: UK organisations with a turnover under £20 million that achieve Cyber Essentials certification for their whole organisation automatically receive £25,000 of cyber liability insurance at no extra cost, including 24/7 incident response support. For many smaller businesses, that alone makes the process worth starting.
What Does Cyber Essentials Cover?
The certification tests five specific areas of your IT setup. None of them require enterprise-level technology, and most businesses are closer to meeting them than they think.
Firewalls: Think of a firewall as a locked front door for your network. It controls what traffic is allowed in and out, keeping unauthorised connections at bay. Having one in place, and making sure it is properly configured, is the starting point for the entire certification.
Secure Configuration: Devices and software often come with default settings that prioritise convenience over security. This control checks that unnecessary features and user accounts have been removed or disabled, reducing the number of ways an attacker could find their way in.
User Access Control: Not everyone in a business needs access to everything. This control ensures that staff only have access to the systems and data relevant to their role and that administrative privileges are kept tightly managed and assigned only where genuinely needed.
Malware Protection: This covers the defences in place to prevent malicious software from taking hold on your systems, including antivirus tools and more layered approaches to detecting and blocking threats before they can cause damage.
Security Update Management: Software vulnerabilities are discovered regularly, and developers release updates to fix them. This control checks that your devices and applications are kept up to date, so known weaknesses are not left sitting open for attackers to exploit.
A good IT provider in Bracknell will be able to tell you quickly where your current setup stands against each of these five areas before any formal process begins.
Who Is Asking For It, and Why?
There are three distinct groups now driving demand for Cyber Essentials certification, and understanding which one is relevant to your situation makes the whole thing feel considerably less abstract.
Your customers and supply chain partners
Large businesses, particularly those in financial services, professional services, and enterprise IT, are increasingly requiring their suppliers to hold Cyber Essentials as a condition of doing business. Around 15% of organisations have already made it mandatory for their suppliers, with a further 33% actively considering it, according to IASME, the body that delivers the scheme on behalf of the NCSC. The logic is straightforward: a business can invest significantly in its own cyber security and still be compromised through a less-protected supplier. Certification has become the baseline signal that you take security seriously.
Public sector contracts
For any business working with, or hoping to work with, the public sector, Cyber Essentials is effectively non-negotiable for contracts involving sensitive data or systems. The government’s Procurement Policy Note PPN 014 requires suppliers to demonstrate they meet the technical requirements of Cyber Essentials for higher-risk contracts. If public sector work is part of your growth plan, this is not something you can defer.
Your insurer
Cyber insurance underwriters are paying much closer attention to the controls organisations have in place, using that information to determine both eligibility and premiums. Businesses with Cyber Essentials certification represent a demonstrably lower risk: organisations with certification in place are 92% less likely to make a cyber insurance claim. Some insurers now require evidence of certification outright, while others offer materially better terms to those who hold it. It is an area where the IT services companies in Bracknell and across Berkshire are increasingly being asked to help clients get their house in order ahead of renewal.
What Does the Process Look Like?
This is where most business owners expect it to get complicated, but with an experienced IT consultancy in Bracknell supporting you through it, the process is far more straightforward than it first appears.
Step one: Gap assessment
Before anything is formally submitted, a good IT partner will review your current setup against the five controls and identify what, if anything, needs to be addressed. This removes the guesswork, prevents failed submissions, and gives you a clear picture of where you actually stand before any cost or commitment is involved.
Step two: Remediation
Where gaps exist, your IT partner will make the necessary changes. For most businesses, this involves relatively straightforward adjustments to configuration, access management, or software update processes rather than significant new investment.
Step three: Self-assessment and submission
Your IT partner will work through the certification questionnaire alongside you, ensuring the responses are accurate and complete before submission to the certifying body. This is not something you need to navigate alone.
Step four: Certification
Once approved, your certificate is issued and typically remains valid for 12 months. Annual renewal keeps the certification current and your supply chain and insurance requirements met going forward.
Updates to the Cyber Essentials scheme introduced in April 2026 brought stricter requirements around multi-factor authentication and the use of unsupported software. Any IT companies in Bracknell supporting you through this process should be fully across the latest version of the standard, not just the broad framework.
Take Your First Steps to Cyber Essentials
Cyber Essentials has moved from a nice-to-have to a practical requirement for a growing number of UK businesses. Whether the request has come from a customer, a contract renewal, or your insurer, the process is manageable, and the benefits extend well beyond simply ticking a compliance box.
At SolCo, we’ve helped businesses across Bracknell and the wider Berkshire area achieve Cyber Essentials certification, from the initial gap assessment through to submission and beyond. As a trusted local IT provider in Bracknell, our team understands the pressures facing SMEs in this region and can guide you through the process without the jargon or the unnecessary complexity.
Book a free Cyber Essentials consultation with Chris to find out where your business currently stands and what getting certified would involve.
