secure by design
Consult MB is now a licensed Certification Body for the Defence Cyber Certification (DCC). Mike, our assessor, is a certified DCC Level 1 Assessor.
Our focus will be on micro organisations in the MoD supply chain. If you’re based in the West Country and interested in gaining DCC, please contact us.
The UK Government has issued a new warning letter, this time aimed at small business owners and entrepreneurs. The letter outlines the increasing risk to cyber security with half of small businesses in the UK having suffered a cyber attack in the previous 12 months.
The letter highlights the NCSC’s Cyber Action Toolkit and the Cyber Essentials scheme.
If you’re a small business in Somerset and have concerns about cyber security or are interested in achieving Cyber Essentials certification, contact us to learn how we can safeguard your business together.
It’s been a while since the last update from Consult MB Ltd, but here’s a big one! On 13-Oct-2025 the UK Government issued a warning re increasing levels of hostile cyber activities in the UK. The letter to CEOs and Chairs of leading UK companies can be found here.
The letter asks CEOs/Chairs to implement the Cyber Essentials controls and require their supply chain to do so as well.
If you need any advice on Cyber Essentials, or are seeking to certify, please contact us.
Version 3.2 of the NCSC’s Cyber Essentials standard (IASME codename Willow) will go live from 28-April-2025. This version sees improved question wording and links to additional guidance. An important technical update is the acceptance of passwordless authentication. Checkout the NCSC’s Cyber Essentials v3.2 requirement document here.
Whilst the scope of Cyber Essentials Plus is exactly the same as Cyber Essentials, testing CE+ sees some interesting changes:
The NCSC’s updated Cyber Essentials Plus Test specification, can be found here.
The NCSC have published their annual review for the period Sep 2023 to Aug 2024. The report has a lot to say of interesting news and statistics about Cyber Essentials and the Cyber Advisor (Cyber Essentials) scheme. The report also mentions the NCSC’s Active Cyber Defence services, which we’d recommend to any/all organisations.
If you’re based in Somerset, Devon or Gloucestershire and are looking for cyber security advice, guidance and implementation, please get in touch.
The National Cyber Security Centre have published a blog marking the 10 year anniversary of Cyber Essentials. The blog highlights that organisations with Cyber Essentials certification are 92% less likely to make a cyber-insurance claim compared to those without it – which is an impressive statistic!
IASME have also published their own anniversary booklet, which rightly describes the scheme as “A minimum standard for cyber security”. A key statistic from the brochure is that 89% of Cyber Essentials certified organisations would recommend certifying to Cyber Essentials to other organisations like theirs – another great endorsement!
The NCSC’s Cyber Advisor Scheme has been with us for some time now. The scheme aims to provide small to medium sized organisations with cyber security advice and support. The Cyber Advisor Scheme is operated by IASME, the NCSC’s partner. The initial focus of the scheme is to help organisations implement the technical controls defined by the Cyber Essentials scheme.
To become a Cyber Advisor (Cyber Essentials) the advisor must work for an NCSC assured service provider and pass an assessment which evaluates:
The Cyber Advisor assessment is not a trivial exercise and the current pass rate is only around 50%. Whilst many candidates are technically competent, they often struggle with the consultancy skills aspect of the assessment.
Consult MB Ltd, with its roots in cyber security consultancy and status as a Cyber Essentials Certification Body, has developed a 1-day training course for potential Cyber Advisors. This course covers the technical requirements and consultancy skills needed, aiming to prepare candidates for the Cyber Advisor assessment.
The training course is delivered in-person, but can also be offered as an on-line webinar. If you are interested in preparing for the assessment by attending the 1-day course, please get in touch via our contact form.
From 1st April 2024 the cost of Cyber Essentials (and IASME Cyber Assurance) certification will increase. Pricing still operates on a tiered structure, determined by the number of employees.
| Organisation Size | Current Price (ex VAT) | New Price (ex VAT) |
| Micro (0-9 employees) | 300 | 320 |
| Small (10-49) | 400 | 440 |
| Medium (50-249) | 450 | 500 |
| Large (250+) | 500 | 600 |
Vade, an organisation providing threat detection and response, recently published its annual “Phishers’ Favorites” report for 2023. In its list of the top 20 most impersonated brands in phishing attacks, the Facebook brand came top, followed by Microsoft. Other brands well known to UK audiences, included Amazon, PayPal, Instagram, Google, WhatsApp and Netflix.
Phishing attacks using social media brands saw the largest increase rising by more than 113% year-on-year. Alongside the rise in phishing using social media brands, financial services was the most impersonated sector with a number of banks, credit card providers, and PayPal in the top 20 impersonated list.
The 2023 Data Breach Investigations Report by Verizon highlighted that human error remains the leading cause of data breaches with 74% of all breaches associated with such errors. Phishing awareness training must be at the front line of cyber defences.
If you would like to know more about Cyber awareness training, please get in touch.