Cyber Essentials Gets a Huge Update in 2022
Is Your School Prepared?
NCSC.Gov and IASME announced in December 2021 that after 7 years with no updates, that Cyber Essentials and Cyber Essentials Plus is undergoing changes, what are they, and how will they impact your school?
Introducing the biggest update to the Cyber Essentials and Cyber Essentials Plus set of requirements, the NCSC is bringing the biggest overhaul of the technical controls since its launch 8 years ago in 2022.
The set of updates is in response to the ever-evolving cyber security challenges that schools are now facing. The new controls have been influenced by the huge move and implementation to remote teaching and learning, concerning rise in cyber attacks against schools and further safeguarding concerns.
With this change in the way we work and store data and the speed at which technologies and cyber criminals are adapting and evolving, the Cyber Essentials reboot addresses these challenges. The most significant update is the change to its current dynamic of yearly technical reviews, to more regular checks on technical controls.
The modernisations to the scheme ensures schools of all sizes have the processes in place to defend against cyber threats, this is – in the opinion of some cyber security experts - long overdue. The cyber landscape continues to change rapidly, the hackers and cyber criminals are becoming more and more ingenious, and the processes and controls schools have in place just aren’t up to the job anymore.
Schools and their cyber security measures need to evolve just to keep up with the cyber criminals, and these new Cyber Essentials protocols have been designed to help do just that. The NCSC and IASME have confirmed that the updates will assist schools to maintain basic cyber hygiene which will, in turn, will provide reassurance to staff, parents, governors and other stakeholders.
Officially released on the 24th of January 2022, the new Cyber Essentials includes revisions to the use of cloud services, provides processes for remote and home teaching & learning, addresses 2FA and multi-factor authentication protocols, patches, security updates and password management controls.
At Sweethaven we’ve been assisting schools to achieve their Cyber Essentials and Cyber Essentials Plus certifications for many years, we’re proud owners of a Cyber Essentials Plus certification ourselves, and we’ll be delivering the newly updated certifications from 2022.
If you’re looking to attain a Cyber Essentials certification you may benefit from our unbiased comprehensive evaluation of your cyber security protocols by way of an audit, and a thorough report. We can also provide advice on the best cyber solutions, systems, and services, and we can help with staff cyber security training and testing.
If you'd like to know more, we're happy to help. Get in touch with the team below:
