Cyber Advice for small organisations
Cyber Advisor is the National Cyber Security Centre’s (NCSC) new Industry Assurance scheme focused on cyber security consultancy for small organisations. The scheme, delivered in partnership with IASME, provides a pool of assured providers of reliable and cost effective cyber security consultancy. Importantly, Cyber Advisors are assessed against whether they can understand and communicate with small organisations to give proportionate and sensible cyber security support.
Cyber Essentials, is a government-backed certification scheme that helps organisations, whatever their size, to protect themselves against a whole range of common cyber attacks. There is evidence to show that the technical controls of Cyber Essentials mitigate the majority of high volume, low-skill attacks perpetrated through the internet. Therefore, one of the easiest ways to make the UK more secure is to help organisations to implement the technical controls at scale across the country. Cyber Essentials is recognised as a good baseline standard and there is confidence that it will improve the security for those that properly implement it.
Why do you need a Cyber Advisor?
Many organisations are concerned about cyber security, yet lack in-house expertise or easy access to qualified people who can help them to secure their networks. Whether a business, school or charity, small organisations in particular, often have limited time and funds to invest in security; they might not know who to trust, or fear they will over-pay or be sold more than they need.
Even for those small businesses that use IT support, although most IT providers have good technical knowledge, they do not always have good understanding about cyber security. Not every IT consultant will have the skills to advise and implement the Cyber Essentials controls or be able to relate to a small business owner with little technical knowledge.
Thanks to the Cyber Advisor scheme, any organisation can now find a qualified and approved Cyber Advisor working within companies assured by the NCSC. This makes it simple for organisations that are starting out on their cyber security journey to benefit from expert skills and advice offered by qualified individuals.
What are Cyber Advisors and what can they do for you?
An NCSC Cyber Advisor is a cyber security expert that has passed an NCSC assessment and works for an assured advisor organisation.
Cyber Advisors can support your organisation to put in place basic cyber security measures, and also help you to achieve Cyber Essentials certification. The Cyber Essentials controls provide good cyber hygiene for any business, whether or not you are working towards a Cyber Essentials certificate.
A Cyber Advisor can assess your organisation and its internet-facing IT to identify where it meets (or doesn’t meet) the Cyber Essentials controls. The Advisor can then explain why the controls are met or not, highlight any risks your organisation is exposed to, and provide recommended actions for you to take.
NCSC Cyber Advisors are skilled at explaining the technical controls to non-technical organisations, and also why those controls are important. They can suggests solutions that are right for the size and type of your organisation, working to a code of conduct that makes sure you only receive the advice that is most appropriate for you.
A Cyber Advisor can help you with:
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Establishing the scope of your Cyber Essentials assessment
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Setting up a subset
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Firewalls
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Malware protection
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Patching and security update management
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Secure configuration
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User access control
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Securing cloud services
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Setting up multi-factor authentication
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Backing up your files
Find an NCSC approved cyber advisor near you by searching on a register.