As an IT service provider, we get this question a lot from clients: “We’ve got cyber insurance, so do we really need Cyber Essentials too?”
Short answer: yes. Here’s why.
They do completely different jobs
Cyber Essentials is a UK government-backed certification scheme that proves you have fundamental security controls in place, things like firewalls, secure configuration, access control, malware protection, and patch management. It’s preventative. It’s about reducing the chance of an attack succeeding in the first place. This is something we can manage wholly in our Essentials managed IT service and higher tiers.
Cyber insurance, on the other hand, is your financial safety net after something goes wrong. It covers costs like incident response, business interruption, legal fees, and sometimes ransom negotiation.
One stops the fire. The other helps you rebuild after it.
The biggest misconception: “Insurance covers everything”
Cyber insurance policies increasingly come with conditions attached, and basic security hygiene is often one of them. Insurers are getting much stricter about what they’ll pay out if you’ve been breached due to an unpatched system, weak passwords, or no MFA. Some won’t even quote you without baseline certifications in place. Cyber Essentials can directly support, and sometimes reduce the cost of getting cover.
Another misconception: “We’re too small to be a target”
Small and medium businesses are exactly who attackers go after, precisely because they often have weaker defences and less monitoring. Cyber Essentials gives you a clear, achievable framework to close the most common gaps, the ones responsible for the vast majority of successful attacks.
The real benefit of doing both
- Cyber Essentials reduces your likelihood of an incident
- Cyber Insurance reduces your financial exposure if one happens anyway
- Together, they often make you more attractive to customers, suppliers, and insurers. Cyber Essentials is increasingly a requirement for government contracts and supply chain agreements
Cyber Essentials vs Cyber Essentials Plus
Cyber Essentials is a self-assessment, verified by an external assessor. It’s a great starting point — affordable, quick to achieve, and gets the fundamentals right.
Cyber Essentials Plus takes it further with a hands-on technical audit, including vulnerability scans and on-site/remote testing of your systems. It proves you’re not just saying the controls are in place — you’re demonstrating it. This carries more weight with larger clients, public sector tenders, and insurers.
The benefits:
- Free cyber insurance included: Most Cyber Essentials certifications (for eligible UK organisations with turnover under £20m) come bundled with cyber liability insurance, typically up to £25,000-£100,000 of cover, depending on your provider and turnover, at no extra cost
- Reduced premiums: Even where it’s not bundled, holding certification can lower the cost of a standalone cyber insurance policy, since insurers see you as lower risk
- Wins business: Increasingly a contractual requirement for government contracts, supply chains, and larger clients who want assurance their suppliers aren’t the weak link
- Builds genuine resilience: The five core controls address the vulnerabilities behind the vast majority of common cyberattacks
- Cyber Essentials Plus adds: independent verification that controls actually work in practice, not just on paper, valuable if you handle sensitive data or are in a regulated sector
Looking to renew your cyber insurance?
Why not kill two birds with one stone?
Achieving Cyber Essentials certification doesn’t just tick the security box; for many UK businesses, it comes with cyber liability insurance built in as part of the certification. That means you could strengthen your defences, demonstrate compliance to clients and suppliers, and sort your insurance cover, all in one go.
Instead of treating these as two separate tasks on a to-do list, get certified and let the cover come along for the ride.
Our partnership with KeySigma:
We are proud partners of KeySigma, a leading provider and the largest employer of Cyber Essentials advisors in the UK. This means faster turnaround times, deeper technical expertise, and a smoother certification process from start to finish, backed by the people who know the scheme inside out.
Speak to our cyber experts today to discuss your cyber insurance renewal, as well as Cyber Essentials certification. Through our partnership with KeySigma, we’ll give you no-obligation advice on the most suitable option for your business, and in many cases, can get you certified and insured within just a few days.
