Helping clients to become Cyber Essentials Certified

In today’s post-GDPR world, data security is more important than ever before. Making sure that your systems are fully protected against cyber threats and data breaches are an integral part of any IT strategy. At Lucid Systems, we take security extremely seriously and we regularly work alongside many of our clients to help them achieve Cyber Essentials certification.

This means that you can feel not just feel confident that you are protecting yourself in full against the potential for cyber-attacks, but you can clearly demonstrate to your customers and stakeholders a stringent commitment to data security.

What is the Cyber Essentials certification scheme?

Cyber Essentials is a government-backed scheme which was launched in 2014 to help organisations protect themselves against a range of online threats. Backed by both the Federation of Small Businesses and the CBI, it’s a certification scheme which is designed to help those who may not have the time or resources to implement a full-on cyber security system.

Cyber Essentials certification can protect businesses against hacking, phishing scams or password guessing. It ensures that all of your IT devices are protected, whether that’s laptops, desktops, mobile phones, and even servers and networking equipment.

Why should SME’s pay attention to Cyber Essentials certification?

Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) are often deemed the most ‘at risk’ of cyber attacks because they are seen as less resilient to hackers. A combination of fewer resources, smaller budgets, a lack of specialist knowledge and a shortage of time to implement security fixes can make them an easy target for cyber criminals.

In the government’s Cyber Security Breaches Survey 2019, it was discovered that 31% of micro and small businesses have identified a security breach in the last 12 months. Whilst this is a significant decrease from the year before (where 42% of Micro or Small businesses identified a breach) it is still a huge number and shows the continual need to educate smaller firms of the importance of cyber security.

One of the key aspects of cyber security is ensuring that all systems are updated with the latest patches and fixes. In 2017, the WannaCry ransomware attack affected more than 200,000 computers across 150 countries, mainly because many organisations (especially smaller firms) were using older or out of date software which left them vulnerable to being attacked.

Clearly, it’s vital that cyber security should be seen as a key priority for all companies, whatever their size.

How Lucid Systems can support your Cyber Essentials certification

At Lucid Systems, we are realists and we understand the pressures that our clients face. We know that when it comes to cyber security it will always be on the ‘to-do’ list, but sometimes things which you’ve been meaning to get around to can lead to disastrous consequences if they are not tackled promptly.

The Cyber Security Breaches Survey 2019 showed that 15% of those firms who had identified an attack took more than a day to recover. In today’s fast-paced world, the longer it takes to recover from a hack, the more damage can be done. In worst-case scenarios, an attack can even cause a business to cease trading – especially if customer data such as payment details have been compromised.

At Lucid Systems, we work hard to take the stress of online security away from our clients. We work collaboratively to assess your individual systems and security practices and make the technical changes required to improve your resilience. We use our expertise to implement stringent policies and educate all staff members of the importance of remaining vigilant to any online threats. When we are comfortable that everything is set up as it should, we complete the Cyber Essentials application on your behalf, allowing you to enjoy the benefits of full certification.

The end result is that you can feel confident that you’ve done what you can to protect your business. You can demonstrate to your customers that you have a full audit of internal security processes (which are vital as part of the stringent GDPR legislation), and you can show to customers that you can safely store and process personal or sensitive data.

We work alongside clients in locations such as Ipswich, Bury St Edmunds, and Colchester and Bedfordshire to protect them against cyber crime. If you’d like to find out about our data security initiatives or our disaster recovery solutions, please get in touch.