Approximately 32% of all businesses were affected by cyber-crime in 2023. When you look solely at medium-sized businesses, this figure jumps up to 59%.
Don’t allow your business to become another statistic! You should be taking a proactive approach to tightening up your security. One of the ways of doing this can be to obtain Cyber Essentials certification, which shows you meet different standards of cyber security.
Many companies now opt for cyber insurance to protect them from the wide array of threats. Cyber Essentials certification shows that you take the necessary precautions against these threats to ensure your business and its clients are protected.
To pass the basic cyber essentials accreditation, you need to:
We can help you pass cyber essentials and will work with you to ensure you pass. Doing so shows that you are proactive against viruses, hackers, and even lack of knowledge around cyber security.
You may think that you are simply too busy to gain another certification for your business. However, doing so can have several benefits. These can include:
Having this certification can act as a green flag for prospective clients or suppliers, as they will be able to see the duty of care you take with all aspects of your business.
When they will be supplying you with personal or financial information, it can be reassuring for them to know that you take confidentiality and safeguarding seriously.
While you would self-certify for standard Cyber Essentials certification, more in-depth audits are required for you to gain Cyber Essentials Plus. This means that you would need to prove each security measure you have in place.
An independent, external audit of your systems would need to take place. This is often undertaken by an assessor, often from the certification body you use for Cyber Essentials. Not all the information may need to be audited. Generally, the assessor may ask for a random sample of about 10% of your systems. This may be done either on-site or remotely. Any assessor you use would need to be IASME licenced, which can be found on their website.
These assessors would look for several criteria, including:
While Cyber Essentials Plus can be undertaken by any business, regardless of size, it may benefit some more than others. In particular, those businesses that are most frequently targeted by cyber criminals may want to deploy greater security measures. Those in the property, pharmaceutical, healthcare, travel, and leisure industries may be more likely to be targeted than their counterparts.
Any business, regardless of industry can still be at risk of attempts, or even successful attacks, especially if there are no adequate cyber security measures in place.
Therefore, you should consider how much responsibility you, as a business owner, will take in the fight against cyber-crime, and how committed you are to data and device security. This can help you to figure out if Cyber Essentials Plus is something you are willing to invest in.
Completing your Cyber Essentials or Cyber Essentials Plus certification can seem quite daunting, especially if this is not something you have done before. As experts in cyber security, Syn-Star can help to make this process significantly easier.
Book a meeting today to discuss your cyber security needs. Gain the power to protect your business from hackers and malware while instilling courage and trust in your clients.
Verity Armstrong
Verity is our resident wordsmith. She spent time honing her skills as a freelance writer for a number of different industries from 2020 to 2023. Now, Verity writes about IT support and cyber security for Syn-Star. Outside of this, she curates content for Mindful Me, a blog about well-being and leading a more positive lifestyle.
Qualifications: BA (hons) Psychology, MA (Merit) Youth Justice, Community Safety & Applied Criminology
In-house training: HubSpot SEO, SEO 2, Digital Marketing
Favourite movie: Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings
Favourite band: Hollowstar
Favourite food: Pad Thai or enchiladas
Have a Question? Ask us here!
Verity Armstrong
Verity is our resident wordsmith. She spent time honing her skills as a freelance writer for a number of different industries from 2020 to 2023. Now, Verity writes about IT support and cyber security for Syn-Star. Outside of this, she curates content for Mindful Me, a blog about well-being and leading a more positive lifestyle.
Qualifications: BA (hons) Psychology, MA (Merit) Youth Justice, Community Safety & Applied Criminology
In-house training: HubSpot SEO, SEO 2, Digital Marketing
Favourite movie: Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings
Favourite band: Hollowstar
Favourite food: Pad Thai or enchiladas
Our support is designed to meet and exceed the needs of your business. We’re equipped to provide business support, as your business grows. Our technicians are ready to identify your pains swiftly, rectify the causes, and maintain your business technology for the long term.
Email me the full report
Team Productivity:
You and your team are able to see where they are using their time and how productive they are actually being. Also they are able to clock in and out, so really good for flexi-working.
Team Monitoring:
If you would like to know what your team is doing and how productive they are being, we are able to monitor them and create screenshots of what they are working on. This can be run in normal or stealth mode.
Book a FREE fact finding session to discuss the different options.
We proactively seek opportunities to support good causes for our community.
From sponsoring local community football teams, to engaging with charity fundraiser days, we believe it’s important to continually strive to do good for the better of others.
We have members who volunteer with youth organisations, are engaged with the Round Table, run marathons and volunteer at events where we may be needed. Every charity receives a discounted IT and Telecoms service too.
Protecting your digital data is crucial for every business and this can start with the industry-leading security we offer. The Syn-Star specialists can help with identifying any vulnerabilities within your IT systems and act accordingly to ensure cyber-attacks and data breaches are mitigated.
Your business will never fall behind with its technology when you work with Syn-Star.
We understand IT and Telecoms for your business is an investment, but it’s important to use the best resources available to enable the growth of your business. Our IT Consultancy and Virtual IT Director Services are available to support you with how you use your business technology for years to come.
Syn-Star can conduct quick and easy phishing exercises to identify people within your team who need to improve on their knowledge around fraudulent emails and how they can be alerted to these threats.
At Syn-Star, our experts can proactively work to understand exactly what software you need to support with the business operations. Whether you need a listening ear on what software to choose, or would like to seek some specialist knowledge, we’re here to help where we can.
At Syn-Star, we keep Telecoms simple. There’s so much available to help UK companies with their communications. VoIP systems, fixed landline, cloud phone systems, SIP trunking and more. Contact us for further details.
Desk phones, cordless phones or conference phones, Syn-Star can provide you with whatever you need.
From conference calling facilities to the headsets which work best for your team, we’re able to provide all the equipment you need and complete any telecoms job from start to finish.
There is no need to be in the office to make and receive phone calls from your company’s number. Our market-leading Telecoms platform gives you the flexibility of desk phones, soft phones and mobile apps as standard.
Whether your team works remotely, or perhaps staff are on a business trip anywhere in the world, calls can still be made, and people are reachable via phone wherever they go.
With a range of products, our team can support you by installing exactly what you need for internet connectivity. We work with the very best products to provide speedy bandwidths which play a part in the increased productivity of your team.
