Cyber Essentials Plus
Cyber Essentials Plus Certification
SA1 Solutions guides your organisation through the entire Cyber Essentials Plus journey, from initial readiness assessments and remediation through to the external audit. We ensure your systems meet the required standards before testing begins, helping minimise disruption and maximise your chances of passing first time. Cyber Essentials Plus is increasingly required by government bodies, enterprise clients, and organisations handling sensitive information, providing greater confidence to customers, partners, and stakeholders.
The Cyber Essentials Plus Audit Process
Cyber Essentials Plus adds a hands-on technical audit on top of the self-assessment. Here is how it runs in three stages, with our team managing the scanning, remediation and assessor coordination from start to finish.
Asset Register
You send a list of in-scope devices with hostnames, OS versions and editions, and locations, or we pull it from Intune, your antivirus portal or Qualys.
Your partConsent and IPs
You sign the audit consent form and add your external IP addresses, authorising the vulnerability scanning that Cyber Essentials Plus requires.
Your partQualys Deployment
We deploy the Qualys Cloud Agent to the in-scope devices. It scans quietly in the background and feeds daily reports, with no disruption to your team.
Handled by SA1Proactive Remediation
Using the daily Qualys reports, we patch, fix misconfigurations and close vulnerabilities so devices meet the standard before audit day arrives.
Handled by SA1Audit day: the assessor verifies your controls remotely
Three days before, the assessor finalises the device sample and updates the Qualys report to match. On the day, we coordinate directly with the auditor and connect remotely to each sampled device, sharing the screen to demonstrate that every required control is correctly in place and operating.
Evidence and Certificate
The assessor lists any outstanding items, we address them and submit the requested evidence on your behalf, and the auditor reviews it. Your organisation is then awarded Cyber Essentials Plus, independently verified assurance you can show customers, suppliers and stakeholders.
Handled by SA1Mind the deadline
Your Cyber Essentials Plus evidence must be submitted within 90 days of achieving Cyber Essentials, or 30 days of your CE+ audit, whichever is sooner. We keep you comfortably ahead of it so the certificate is never at risk.
Benefits of Cyber Essentials Plus with SA1 Solutions
Independent, hands-on proof that your security controls actually work, plus the commercial doors that certification opens, all managed by our team.
Independently Verified Security Controls
Cyber Essentials Plus goes beyond self-assessment. An independent assessor tests your systems and controls directly, providing hard evidence that your protections work in practice.
Increased Customer and Supplier Confidence
Show your commitment to security with a recognised, independently audited certification that builds trust with customers, suppliers and stakeholders.
Reduced Cyber Security Risk
Our proactive remediation identifies and resolves weaknesses before the audit, improving your posture and reducing exposure to cyber threats.
Greater Access to Contracts and Opportunities
Many public sector organisations, government bodies and larger enterprises now require Cyber Essentials Plus as part of supplier onboarding and procurement.
Fully Managed Remediation and Audit Support
We manage the preparation, vulnerability remediation, auditor coordination and certification on your behalf, minimising disruption to your business.
Ongoing Security Improvements
The detailed vulnerability reporting and remediation completed during certification strengthens your environment and improves long-term cyber resilience.
The measurable impact of Cyber Essentials
Organisations with Cyber Essentials are reported to be 92% less likely to make a cyber insurance claim than those without certification.
The five Cyber Essentials controls can prevent around 80% of common cyber attacks when correctly implemented.
Firewalls, secure configuration, user access control, malware protection and security update management.
Cyber liability insurance included for eligible organisations (under £20m turnover) on whole-organisation certification.
Contact us today
Demonstrate independently verified cyber security, meet supplier requirements, and build greater trust with customers. Speak to our experts today to start your Cyber Essentials Plus certification journey.