The Cyber Essentials scheme is a way of protecting your business against the increasing and real danger of a cyber attack and is supported by the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC). It is the minimum cyber security requirement for the entire government and other industry supply chains  and is also vital to implement controls that significantly reduce the risk of a cyber attack on your organisation.

If you have any questions about Cyber Essentials contact our cyber team cyber-essentials@mass.co.uk for more information.

IASME Consortium (IASME) is the National Cyber Security Centre’s (NCSC’s) delivery partner of the Cyber Essentials Scheme. IASME in turn, recruits and manages a number of Certification Bodies, based on standards set by the NCSC. 

MASS is a Certification Body for IASME, and will support you throughout your certification process.

To begin your certification, please send an email to cyber-essentials@mass.co.uk, our cyber team will send you a simple form to complete to begin your certification.

We are pleased to offer up to 3 days (20 hours), FREE Cyber Essentials Plus certification consultancy to small businesses and charities with low level security capabilities that face a high risk of cyber-attack. This offer is provided as part of the NCSC and IASME funded cyber essentials programme, targeted at small organisations within sectors that hold sensitive data where there would be a significant impact on their clients or customers if there was a data security breach.

To find out if your business meets the criteria, please visit IASME website or send an email to cyber-essentials@mass.co.uk and a member of our team will be in touch to take you through the relevant steps.

Cyber Essentials certification is awarded on the basis of an independently verified self-assessment questionnaire.

Organisations assess themselves against the five Cyber Essentials security controls. The questionnaire is then verified by a Certification Body (i.e. MASS) to assess whether an appropriate standard has been achieved, and award the Cyber Essentials certification.

Certification provides:

• Reassurance to customers, suppliers and stakeholders that cyber security is taken seriously and methods are in place to reduce the threat from cyber-attacks
• The ability to be considered for government contracts
• The potential to reduce cyber-insurance premiums.

To begin your certification you will need to email cyber-essentials@mass.co.uk, our cyber team will send you a simple form to complete to begin your ceritification.

Once you have achieved the basic Cyber Essentials certification, you may require an upgrade to Cyber Essentials Plus.

This higher level of certification offers additional independent assurance; you can demonstrate that you are complying to more stringent tests of your organisation’s network and computers.

Cyber Essentials Plus offers additional independent assurance that an organisation is complying to Cyber Essentials through both internal and external tests of the organisation’s network and computers. These tests are more stringent than Cyber Essentials self assessment.

The NCSC recommends re-certifying annually with certificates being issued with a 12-month expiry date. For support to re-certify contact our cyber team cyber-essentials@mass.co.uk.

We are a certified Assured Service Provider under the NCSC and IASME led Cyber Advisor Scheme. This scheme is focused on providing small and medium sized organisations with reliable and cost-effective cyber security advice and practical support. The advice and support provided will be centred on the implementation of the technical controls set out under Cyber Essentials. It is anticipated that this new scheme will improve the cyber security of small organisations and reduce the risk of the most commonly experienced cyber-attacks.

To find out more about Cyber Advisor and Cyber Essentials, please contact our team of certified cyber experts via email Cyber-Essentials@mass.co.uk. 

Your next steps to being digitally secure

If you have any questions about the Cyber Essentials scheme and how you can become certified contact our Cyber team on +44 (0)1480 222600 between 0800-1800 UTC

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