In a bold move to address rising cybersecurity threats, the UK Department for Education (DfE) has mandated that all colleges and special post-16 institutions (SPIs) must achieve Cyber Essentials certification during the 2024/25 funding year. This initiative replaces the previous requirement of annual IT health checks, signalling a significant shift in how educational institutions are expected to safeguard their digital infrastructure.
Cyber Essentials (CE) is a government-backed certification undertaken on an annual basis across the UK. CE supports organisations to provide effective assurance that they’re taking care of the core principles of cyber security. It’s a simple scheme that tackles five key areas of security in manageable chunks. A good certifying team can help you use this foundation to develop other essential areas that the scheme doesn’t cover, but nonetheless does formally recommend, such as asset management and backup management for data protection.
The pricing is controlled by the government and scales with your college or SPI's size, and so your selection of who should support your journey should be based on their approach to the work, their values and motivations, and any additional services they can provide. CE is a continuous journey that you want to embark on with a trusted partner, so let us introduce ourselves:
ADAS have a strong business ethos of protecting people from digitally enabled crime. Our clients range from individuals and owner-operator Small Businesses, up to large enterprise corporations. We are proud to support the ideals that Cyber Essentials embodies: cyber security should be an accessible and affordable component of any organisation that feels as necessary and reliable as your fire alarm, extinguishers and exit signs. We’re an organisation committed to doing the best possible job on every occasion, as we only work with organisations we want to see thrive.
We respect the work that colleges do in preparing our young people for the world ahead, and equipping them with the knowledge and social skills to make the world a better place than they’ve found it.
We’re looking forward to a new wave of educational organisations that are looking for a partner to help them attain their Cyber Essentials, and can't wait to hear from you.
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