The UK’s leading cybersecurity agency has called for individuals and companies to join its Cyber Advisor scheme, in a bid to enhance the security posture of the nation’s SMEs.
The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) launched the program almost two years ago. It aims to ensure that expert cybersecurity advice is available locally to every one of the country’s 5.5 million SMEs.
However, according to program lead, Emma W, there are still not nearly enough advisors to go round.
“Since its launch, Cyber Advisor has grown steadily, achieving the milestone figure of 100 Advisors after just 16 months. But this growth is not fast enough,” she said in a blog post yesterday.
That may be in part because of a lack of awareness about the scheme, and/or question marks about the value of participation.
With the latter in mind, Emma W sought to play up the business benefits of getting involved.
“The assessment to become a Cyber Advisor emphasises skills that aren’t often tested elsewhere; knowledge of Cyber Essentials, competence in designing security solutions for SMEs, and the ability talk to SMEs about cybersecurity in plain English,” she wrote.
“While this makes a challenging assessment, certified Cyber Advisors will have a clear advantage over competitors (having demonstrated they provide cybersecurity advice to an NCSC-approved standard).”
Read more on Cyber Advisor: NCSC Tests Cyber Advisor Program
The current assessment process appears to be working: 95% of ‘customers’ said they would rate their Cyber Advisor’s knowledge as “excellent” while 99% said their advisor “recommended solutions that fitted their business requirements,” she continued.
Cyber Advisor is closely linked to the Cyber Essentials scheme, which is also intended to improve baseline security for UK organizations.
In fact, the first iteration of Cyber Advisor focused on helping clients to implement the five Cyber Essentials Technical Controls – best practices such as using a firewall, keeping software and devices up to date, choosing secure settings and controlling access to data and services.
However, like Cyber Advisor, the scheme is suffering from a lack of interest and take-up from British companies.
Although Cyber Essentials surpassed the 10,000 milestone for accreditations for the first time recently, fewer than one in 100 businesses have signed up.
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