Cyber Essentials Support in Kent
Certification guided end to end by a Kent team that holds Cyber Essentials Plus themselves: win the tenders, cut the insurance, close the gaps.
The certificate that's quietly become mandatory
Cyber Essentials started as a nice-to-have. For a growing share of Kent businesses it's now a hard requirement: public-sector tenders demand it, larger clients ask for it in supplier questionnaires, and insurers price around it.
We take you through the whole journey: assess where you stand, fix the gaps (that's the real work), prepare the evidence and manage the assessment, for Cyber Essentials and the independently-audited Plus level.
What our Cyber Essentials support includes:
Contractual response times, not averages: 15 minutes for critical issues, 30 minutes for high priority, 2 hours for medium and 4 hours for low, backed by service credits if we miss them.
- Gap assessment against the five Cyber Essentials control areas, in plain English
- Remediation done for you firewalls, patching, access control and malware protection fixed properly
- Evidence and submission we prepare and manage the whole assessment
- Cyber Essentials Plus support through the hands-on technical audit
- Annual renewal kept current year after year without the scramble
- Staff guidance so the controls survive contact with day-to-day work
We passed it ourselves: at the harder level
CT1 holds Cyber Essentials Plus and ISO 27001, so we're not reading from a checklist: we've prepared our own systems for the same audits we'll prepare yours for. Most clients pass first time because the gaps are closed before the assessor ever looks.
We've guided Kent care providers, professional firms and charities through certification, including one three-site care group whose Plus certificate directly unlocked two local-authority contracts.
Already have someone looking after your IT in Kent?
An in-house IT person
We work alongside them rather than replacing them: taking the helpdesk queue, the patching schedule and the out-of-hours cover off their plate, so they can spend their time on the projects that actually need someone who knows your business. Plenty of our clients run it this way.
An existing IT provider
If it's not working the way you'd like, we manage the switch: collecting documentation, credentials and licences from your outgoing provider, so your team isn't the one chasing them. See how switching provider actually works.
“Our teams care for people, not computers. CT1 made security something that just happens around us, and the certification has already paid for itself in new contracts.”
Registered Manager, Kent care provider
We hold ISO 9001, ISO 14001, ISO 45001 and ISO 27001 ourselves, alongside Cyber Essentials Plus: the standards we would expect of anyone touching a client's data, applied to our own.
Frequently asked questions
Cyber Essentials is a verified self-assessment; Plus adds an independent technical audit where an assessor actually tests your systems. Plus carries more weight in tenders, and it's the level we hold ourselves.
What's the difference between Cyber Essentials and Cyber Essentials Plus?
Cyber Essentials is a verified self-assessment; Plus adds an independent technical audit where an assessor actually tests your systems. Plus carries more weight in tenders, and it's the level we hold ourselves.
How long does certification take?
Typically two to six weeks depending on how much remediation your systems need. The assessment itself is quick: closing the gaps beforehand is the real timeline.
Will it disrupt our business?
Minimal. Most remediation happens in the background, covering patching, configuration and access-control changes, scheduled around your working hours.
Does Cyber Essentials actually reduce insurance costs?
Frequently, yes: many insurers offer better cyber premiums for certified businesses, and certification includes some cyber liability cover for smaller organisations. Several clients have found it effectively pays for itself.
Book your free IT health check
Tell us a little about your business and we'll identify security risks, outdated systems and hidden costs, free, with no obligation and no hard sell.
Prefer to talk? Call 01227 808050 . Phone lines open Mon–Fri, 8:00am–6:00pm.