It was a great start to the New Year, when we were advised that Solar Solve has been accredited as a CYBER ESSENTIALS organisation, under the UK government’s Cyber Essentials – Keeping UK Businesses Safe initiative. In a nut shell, it means that we have all of the systems, security and good practices in place to confirm to our stakeholders that their information and electronic data is safe and secure with us.
A primary objective of the UK Government’s National Cyber Security Strategy is to make the UK a safer place to conduct business online and since 1 October 2014 all suppliers have had to be compliant with the new Cyber Essentials controls, if bidding for government contracts that involve handling of sensitive and personal information and provision of certain technical products and services.
To achieve this, approved suppliers have been engaged by NCSC (the National Cyber Security Centre), which is the information security arm of GCHQ (Government Communications HeadQuarters), to develop an assessment framework to support the Government’s “Cyber Essentials” scheme, which forms a key deliverable of this strategy. By installing these controls, organisations can defend against the most common form of basic cyber-attacks originating from the Internet.
The Cyber Essentials scheme identifies some fundamental technical security controls that an organisation needs to have in place to help defend against Internet-borne threats.
Selected by industry experts, the technical controls within the scheme reflect those covered in well-established standards, such as the ISO/IEC 27000 series, the Information Security Forum’s Standard of Good Practice for Information Security and the Standard for Information Assurance for Small and Medium Sized Enterprises.
Organisations like ours are encouraged to become Cyber Essentials Certified for the following reasons:-
– Reassure customers that you are working to secure your IT against cyber-attack.
– Attract new business with the promise you have cyber security measures in place.
– You have a clear picture of your organisation’s cyber security level.
– Some Government contracts require Cyber Essentials certification.
The rest of the Solar Solve’s forward looking Team say “Congratulations and thanks,” to David, Ian Ratcliffe and Paul Hopkins who all double-up as Solar Solve’s very successful ICT Team. Well Done gents!
JHL MBE SSL Co. Chairman
