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Services · Tech
Cyber security and Cyber Essentials
Certification, hardening, monitoring and staff training. The paperwork your customers and insurers keep asking for, and the protection underneath it that actually keeps you trading.£3,000 to £6,000
What cyber security and cyber essentials actually means
Cyber security is not one product you buy and tick off. It is the set of sensible measures that stop a criminal, or an honest mistake, from turning into a business you cannot trade out of. For most firms the real risks are dull and human: a reused password, an invoice email that was not quite what it seemed, a laptop left on a train, an old account nobody switched off. None of it is the hooded figure from the adverts. All of it is preventable.
We start every engagement the same way, with an audit in plain English. Not a report full of red boxes designed to frighten you into buying more, but an honest look at where you are actually exposed, ranked by what would hurt most and cost least to fix. You get to understand your own risk rather than take our word for it, because a business that understands why it is doing something keeps doing it after we leave.
From there it is Cyber Essentials or Cyber Essentials Plus where you need the certificate, the hardening work underneath it, multi-factor authentication, and the ongoing training and monitoring that keep it real. The certificate is the paperwork insurers and customers ask for. The work under it is what actually keeps you safe.
See it work
Rather than take our word for it
Can you spot the fake? Click the parts of this email that look wrong.
From: Microsoft 365 <>
Subject: Your password expires today
,
Our records show your password will expire. You must verify your account .
Confirm here:
You found 0 of 5 red flags
- Hidden, click a suspicious part of the email
- Hidden, click a suspicious part of the email
- Hidden, click a suspicious part of the email
- Hidden, click a suspicious part of the email
- Hidden, click a suspicious part of the email
A scripted demonstration using a made-up email. In a real phishing simulation we send safe test emails to your team and report, privately, who needs a hand.
How it helps your business
The obvious help is winning and keeping work: more contracts, tenders and insurers now require Cyber Essentials before they will deal with you, so the certificate opens doors that are otherwise shut. But the deeper help is that you stop being the easy target. Most attacks are not aimed at you personally, they are automated and opportunistic, sweeping the internet for the unlocked door. Close the doors and the automated stuff moves on to someone who did not.
It also protects the thing you cannot rebuild: trust. A breach that leaks your customers' data is not just a technical problem, it is the email you have to send them admitting it happened, and the ones who quietly never come back. Keeping them safe is keeping your reputation, and we would rather help you avoid that letter than help you write it.
And because we teach as we go, your team stops being the weak point and becomes the first line. People who understand why a request looks wrong catch the thing no software can, which is the phone call from someone very convincing who should not be trusted. That is the part of safety a person has to own, and it is worth more than any single tool.
What is included
- A plain-English security audit first, so you know what is actually at risk before spending a penny
- Cyber Essentials and Cyber Essentials Plus certification, done properly rather than fudged
- Hardening of accounts, devices, email and networks against the attacks that actually happen
- Multi-factor authentication and sensible access, so one stolen password is not the end
- Staff training and phishing simulation, because most breaches start with a person, not a machine
- Monitoring and a written response plan, so if something does get through you are not improvising
Real examples
Illustrative cases. Tap one to see what happened and what could have been done.
The invoice that was not
The case
A construction firm nearly paid a forty-thousand-pound invoice to a supplier's 'new' bank account. The email was a perfect copy of a real thread, sent from a look-alike domain after the supplier's mailbox was compromised.
What could have been done
Training the accounts team to verify any change of bank details by phone, on a number they already hold, stops the payment before it leaves. The training costs a fraction of the invoice.
The audit that found the open door
The case
A dental practice thought it was fine because it had antivirus. In fact a remote access tool left switched on by a previous IT provider sat open to the whole internet with a weak password, one guess away from every patient record on the system.
What could have been done
A plain-English audit finds that open door, closes it, rebuilds access properly and gets them through Cyber Essentials Plus. Nobody had ever told them it was there; someone had to go looking.
Where the machine reaches further than a person
The case
A recruitment agency could not possibly have a person watch every login, file change and email rule across forty staff, day and night, so a mailbox quietly forwarding copies of every message to an outside address at three in the morning would have gone unseen until far too late.
What could have been done
Automated monitoring watches all of it and flags exactly that. Code reaches where people cannot: everywhere, all the time, without blinking.
Ready to sort cyber security and cyber essentials?
Tell us what is going wrong and we will come back with a fixed price in writing, after a short scoping call. No obligation, and no jargon.
Common questions about cyber security and cyber essentials
How much does cyber security and cyber essentials cost?
£3,000 to £6,000. We agree the exact number before any work starts, so there are no open ended day rates.
How long does cyber security and cyber essentials take?
Most work of this kind is live within three to four weeks. We give you a date before we begin and tell you early if anything threatens it.
Do you work outside Edinburgh?
Yes. We are based in Edinburgh and work on site across the Lothians, Fife and Glasgow, and remotely across the United Kingdom.
Cyber security and Cyber Essentials in your area
Same service, same prices, wherever you are. On site across central Scotland and remotely across the rest of the UK.
Cyber security and Cyber Essentials in EdinburghCyber security and Cyber Essentials in LeithCyber security and Cyber Essentials in FifeCyber security and Cyber Essentials in Livingston and West LothianCyber security and Cyber Essentials in GlasgowCyber security and Cyber Essentials in DundeeCyber security and Cyber Essentials in Aberdeen and the north eastCyber security and Cyber Essentials in StirlingCyber security and Cyber Essentials in FalkirkCyber security and Cyber Essentials in Perth and PerthshireCyber security and Cyber Essentials in LondonCyber security and Cyber Essentials in ManchesterCyber security and Cyber Essentials in BirminghamCyber security and Cyber Essentials in LeedsCyber security and Cyber Essentials in LiverpoolCyber security and Cyber Essentials in SheffieldCyber security and Cyber Essentials in BristolCyber security and Cyber Essentials in Newcastle upon TyneCyber security and Cyber Essentials in NottinghamCyber security and Cyber Essentials in LeicesterCyber security and Cyber Essentials in CoventryCyber security and Cyber Essentials in CardiffCyber security and Cyber Essentials in SwanseaCyber security and Cyber Essentials in BelfastCyber security and Cyber Essentials in SouthamptonCyber security and Cyber Essentials in BrightonCyber security and Cyber Essentials in ReadingCyber security and Cyber Essentials in Inverness
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