UK government publishes Cyber Essentials framework

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The Cyber Essentials scheme has formally been published by the Department for Business, Innovation & Skills and the Cabinet Office, with the final item, the Cyber Essentials Summary, Requirements and Assurance Framework delivered yesterday.

The scheme was unveiled nearly two months ago and is a set of guidelines that seeks to provide clarity to businesses on how to best protect themselves from hackers and cybercriminals as well as common forms of cyber attacks.

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Backed by government and supported by the wider British industry, it has been put together independently with the help of the Information Assurance for Small and Medium Enterprises (IASME) consortium and the Information Security Forum (ISF).

It will allow organisations to obtain 1 of 2 new Cyber Essentials badges ahead of a deadline, later this year, that will require all suppliers bidding for certain public sensitive and personal information handling contracts to have a Cyber Essentials certification.

The scheme will complement rather than replace existing cyber security standards like the ISO27001 information security management standard.