In a bold move to address rising cybersecurity threats, the UK Department for Education (DfE) has mandated that all colleges and special post-16 institutions (SPIs) must achieve Cyber Essentials certification during the 2024/25 funding year. This initiative replaces the previous requirement of annual IT health checks, signalling a significant shift in how educational institutions are expected to safeguard their digital infrastructure.
Cyber Essentials (CE) is a government-backed certification undertaken on an annual basis across the UK. CE supports organisations to provide effective assurance that they’re taking care of the core principles of cyber security. It’s a simple scheme that tackles five key areas of security in manageable chunks. A good certifying team can help you use this foundation to develop other essential areas that the scheme doesn’t cover, but nonetheless does formally recommend, such as asset management and backup management for data protection.
The pricing is controlled by the government and scales with your college or SPI's size, and so your selection of who should support your journey should be based on their approach to the work, their values and motivations, and any additional services they can provide. CE is a continuous journey that you want to embark on with a trusted partner, so let us introduce ourselves:
