Cyber Essentials for care providers
Care providers hold sensitive health and personal data for vulnerable people, with strict CQC and GDPR expectations around how it's protected.
Why care providers are being asked for Cyber Essentials
Local-authority commissioning and NHS-linked contracts increasingly expect a recognised security baseline such as Cyber Essentials.
What Cyber Essentials covers — the five controls
The same five controls apply to every organisation. Here's what each one means; tap through for the detail.
- Firewalls & internet gateways →A boundary between your devices and the internet, so only the services you actually need are reachable from outside.
- Secure configuration →Devices and software set up to reduce the ways in — default passwords changed, unused features and accounts removed.
- Security update management →Keeping software supported and patched, so known vulnerabilities are closed before attackers use them.
- User access control →Making sure accounts are only used by the right people, with MFA, unique logins and separate admin accounts.
- Malware protection →Protecting devices from malicious software, via anti-malware and/or only allowing approved applications to run.
See if your care provider business is ready
Answer the Cyber Essentials questions in plain English and get a per-control readiness verdict — free, no login needed, and we don't store your answers.
Start the free readiness check →More: Cyber Essentials explained · free readiness check
This is a free readiness / gap report to help you prepare — it is not a certification, and we are not an IASME Certification Body. To certify, you apply through an accredited Certification Body.