Helping Businesses Achieve Cyber Essentials – Jayne Moore Media 

The Background 

Jayne Moore Media (JMM) needed to become Cyber Essentials and Cyber Essentials PLUS accredited.  There were several key reasons for this, namely: 

• As a growing business in the marketing space, the importance of protecting the data of clients, employees and affiliates was firmly understood. 
• Due to the nature of contracts they had won, especially in the public sector, there was a clear mandate to demonstrate a clear commitment to operational resilience and ability to manage their cyber risk – these had critical timelines. 

• As a business responsible for building brands and reputations, the need to demonstrate best practice internally and externally was clearly understood. 

What Amicis Did 

As this was the first time JMM had sought accreditation, there were a few aspects that needed understanding and addressing before applying for and securing it such as: 

– A vulnerability assessment of the JMM IT estate to ensure that there were no High or Medium-rated vulnerabilities (according to the CVSS/CVE rating scale); 

– A check to ensure that all mobile devices in use were patched with the latest supported manufacturer’s operating system; and 

– Checks to ensure the correct configuration of firewalls to protect JMM systems from external threats. 

Once the above was complete, Amicis helped JMM complete the CE questionnaire and once CE accreditation had been achieved, put JMM forward for their more formal CE Plus audit with one of our chosen accreditation partners. 

What Outcomes Were Delivered? 

JMM successfully achieved both their Cyber Essentials and Cyber Essentials PLUS accreditations at the first attempt.  The time taken by Amicis and JMM’s IT Partner, and the trial assessment done ahead of the actual audit, meant further costs of re-test and added time was avoided.  This meant accreditation was achieved ahead of key deadlines set as part of the Public Sector commercial contract commitments. 

Lizzie O’Neill, Marketing Director of JMM had this to say in reflection of the achievement “Amicis was a great support in helping us gain our CE plus accreditation. They took a complex and very daunting process and made it simple, calm and achievable. One of the hardest parts of this project was that we needed an incredibly quick turnaround, which Amicis absolutely delivered. We are extremely grateful to the team and will be working with Amicis to renew our certification year by year.” 

There are many benefits of achieving Cyber Essentials and Cyber Essentials Plus, including: 

• Solid baseline to build your wider business resilience planning from; 

• Assurance of your defences against common cyber threats; and 
• Commercial enablement – a demonstration to clients of your commitment to protecting their data.  Indeed, many public and private sector organisations now mandate Cyber Essentials is in place if they are to trade with you. 

If you are considering Cyber Essentials/Cyber Essentials Plus but not sure how to prepare your business for the accreditation, reach out to Amicis Group at hello@amicisgroup.co.uk or book a short call here with one of our team to learn how we’ve supported organisations in a similar situation to yourselves.