Cyber Essentials
Cyber Essentials Certification
SA1 Solutions helps businesses achieve Cyber Essentials certification quickly and pass first time. As a CyberSmart partner, we use the UK’s leading certification platform to guide you through the five technical controls – firewalls, secure configuration, access control, malware protection, and security update management. Most clients certify within days, not weeks. Once certified, you’ll also unlock up to £25,000 of free cyber insurance included with the CyberSmart package.
The Cyber Essentials Certification Process
STEP 1 - Initial Scoping Call
We start with a short scoping call to understand your business size, device estate, cloud services in use, and any contractual deadline driving the certification – such as a public-sector tender or a customer requirement. This determines pricing tier (Cyber Essentials covers organisations up to 249 employees) and the realistic timeline to certify.
STEP 2 - Onboarding to SA1's CyberSmart Platform
Your organisation is added to SA1 Solutions’ CyberSmart partner platform. Where appropriate, the CyberSmart Active Protect agent is deployed to your endpoints – this auto-populates much of the certification questionnaire by pulling live data on your devices, configurations, and patch status, saving hours of manual inventory work. No separate accounts, logins, or vendor relationships to manage on your end.
STEP 3 - Gap Assessment Against the Five Controls
We assess your current setup against the five Cyber Essentials controls: firewalls, secure configuration, user access control, malware protection, and security update management. Any gaps are documented with a remediation plan tailored to your environment – whether that’s enabling MFA, tightening admin privileges, or updating end-of-life software.
STEP 4 - Remediation and Hardening
SA1 Solutions handles the technical remediation work directly. We apply secure configurations, deploy missing controls, enforce patching policies, and resolve any blockers preventing a pass. You don’t need to interpret the standard or figure out what “good” looks like – we do it for you.
STEP 5 - Questionnaire Submission and IASME Review
We complete and submit the certification questionnaire on your behalf through our CyberSmart platform. An IASME-accredited auditor then reviews the submission. If any checks fail, you get unlimited attempts at no extra cost – and SA1 Solutions handles the corrective actions before resubmitting, so you pass first time.
STEP 6 - Certification, Insurance, and Ongoing Compliance
Once you pass, you receive your Cyber Essentials certificate, the official badge for your website and marketing materials, and listing on IASME’s public database. You also unlock up to £25,000 of free cyber insurance through the CyberSmart bundle. SA1 Solutions then monitors your compliance year-round via Active Protect, so you stay certification-ready for the annual renewal.
Benefits of Cyber Essentials Certification with SA1 Solutions
Win More Business and Tenders
Cyber Essentials is mandatory for most UK government contracts and increasingly required by larger corporate clients in their supplier vetting. Welsh businesses bidding for public-sector work, NHS contracts, or enterprise tenders need certification on the table. With SA1 Solutions, you go from “we don’t have it” to certified in days – opening doors that were previously closed.
£25,000 Cyber Insurance Included
Once certified, your organisation unlocks up to £25,000 of free cyber insurance through the CyberSmart bundle, covering incident response and recovery costs. Real protection backed by real cover – not just a badge for your website. Higher-tier bundles increase the cover to £100,000 if you need more.
Lower Your Risk Without Hiring a Security Team
The five Cyber Essentials controls are designed to block the most common attacks targeting UK businesses – phishing, weak passwords, unpatched software, and misconfigured devices. SA1 Solutions implements and maintains every control on your behalf, so you get measurable risk reduction without recruiting an in-house security analyst.
Pass First Time, Backed by Unlimited Attempts
We handle the questionnaire, the technical evidence, and the IASME submission – guided by our CyberSmart partnership. If anything fails on first review, you get unlimited resubmission attempts at no extra cost, and SA1 Solutions handles the corrective work. No surprise fees, no failed certifications.
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