Cyber Essentials? What's that then?

New research from Lookout finds that 40 percent of security pros have no clue about the UK Cyber Essentials framework -- the government backed program that aims to help UK organizations improve their cyber resiliency against the most common cyberattacks.

The research, carried out at Infosecurity Europe, surveyed 246 security professionals and finds only 28 percent of organizations had fully implemented Cyber Essentials. Of those that had not implemented the scheme, 58 percent say a lack of awareness or understanding is the reason why they hadn't.

Of those that are Cyber Essential certified, 58 percent stated they had the standard level while 42 percent had completed Cyber Essential Plus -- which offers added hands-on technical verification and vulnerability scanning that is conducted on the systems used by the organization.

The top three benefits experienced from being certified were: an improvement in cybersecurity measures (60 percent), an increase in customer trust and confidence (54 percent), and compliance with regulatory requirements (48 percent).

Under half of security professionals (47 percent) check if their third-party suppliers are UK Cyber Essentials certified. Also, 41 percent would still choose to partner with a supplier even if they were not accredited, stating it's not a deal breaker.

"The findings from the study are concerning and showcase the work needed to not only build awareness around the NCSC Cyber Essentials framework, but also to get more organizations accredited," says Bastien Bobe, field CTO EMEA at Lookout. "The findings from the study are concerning and showcase the work needed to be done to not only build awareness around the NCSC Cyber Essentials framework, but also to get more organizations accredited."

You can find out more on the Lookout site.

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