In our digital age, cybersecurity is crucial. The Cyber Essentials (CE) certification provides you with benefits such as uniform protection, improved collaboration, and regulatory compliance.
In this article, we explore these benefits, alongside the challenges you can face pursuing CE certification for your organisation. Knowing these before you begin will help you navigate CE. For even more information, read our Assurance and Opportunities article.
Benefits to you include:
Consistent protection
Certifying your whole organisation helps ensure uniform security measures, minimizing vulnerabilities and reducing the risk of cyber-attacks.
Enhanced collaboration
By involving all employees in the cybersecurity process, a culture of shared responsibility is cultivated, leading to stronger defences.
Regulatory compliance
Broad-scale certification can help you meet industry-specific regulations like the GDPR, protecting from legal consequences and enhancing reputation.
Future readiness
Certification across your organisation lays a foundation for continuous cybersecurity improvements, proving a commitment to adapt to emerging threats.
Challenges we can help you with:
Complexity
Certification across all departments can be complicated, requiring extensive coordination and potentially increasing your effort and stretching resources.
Resistance to change
Employees may resist your new security protocols, requiring clear communication and effective change management to encourage adoption.
Lack of awareness
Educating your employees is crucial, as a lack of knowledge can pose challenges to implementing secure practices.
Compliance challenges
Maintaining CE compliance is ongoing and requires continuous monitoring and adjustment, potentially straining resources.
Cost considerations
Expenses related to certification, such as consultants, security solutions, and system upgrades, may present you with barriers, particularly for smaller organisations.
Even with these challenges, the benefits of obtaining Cyber Essentials for your entire organization outweigh the drawbacks. With proper planning and communication, these hurdles can be
overcome, leading to robust cybersecurity. See our article Defining your Cyber Essentials Scope for information about where to start.
