Cyber Essentials Overhauled for New Hybrid Working Era
The UK government has launched a significant set of new requirements for organizations looking to comply with its Cyber Essentials scheme to bring it up to date with the way people live and work today.
Announced late last year, the changes will not impact the scheme’s overall control themes of firewalls, secure configuration, user access control, malware protection and software updates.
However, it has been expanded to address a new set of scenarios brought about by digital transformation and new post-pandemic working patterns.
There’s a new shared responsibility model to ensure organizations can better understand and fulfill their obligations to secure cloud services and infrastructure across SaaS, IaaS and PaaS.
There are also new requirements around home working, which is increasingly the norm for many workers today. This includes expectations about deploying firewall controls to users’ machines and devices.
The program has also been updated to include guidance on which multi-factor authentication (MFA) type to choose for employees, focusing on usability and accessibility.
Backups are not covered because the scheme doesn’t want to “overburden” organizations, even though it strongly recommends a rigorous backup and recovery program.
While the costs associated with Cyber Essentials will remain the same for small and micro companies, a tiered system means larger firms will pay more; now £600 including VAT.
“We still view Cyber Essentials as the minimum standard for cybersecurity in the UK but we also need to ensure it keeps evolving as the threat landscape and technology change. This major update is part of that ongoing regular review, explained “Anne W” of the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC).
“We are also looking at what other services we can introduce to support Cyber Essentials. This includes providing an advisory service to help organizations that don’t have their own technical support with the practical configuration of their systems, and how to address the security challenges that larger organizations with complex IT estates face to meet the minimum standard.”
More Stories
Live Video of Promachoteuthis Squid
The first live video of the Promachoteuthis squid, filmed at a newly discovered seamount off the coast of Chile. Blog...
YubiKey Side-Channel Attack
There is a side-channel attack against YubiKey access tokens that allows someone to clone a device. It’s a complicated attack,...
Spyware Vendors’ Nebulous Ecosystem Helps Them Evade Sanctions
The secret web of at least 435 entities across 42 countries making up the spyware landscape facilitates unpunished security and...
US and Allies Accuse Russian Military of Destructive Cyber-Attacks
The joint government advisory highlighted the cyber activities of Unit 29155, which has launched destructive cyber-attacks against critical infrastructure globally...
PyPI Revival Hijack Puts Thousands of Applications at Risk
Revival Hijack Python Package Index supply chain attack threatens 22,000 packages through malicious downloads Read More
Security Budgets Come Under Pressure as “Hypergrowth” Ends
Despite rising threats researchers find a third of firms see flat or falling security budgets and hiring slows Read More