Whether you need Cyber Essentials to bid on a Welsh Government / Sell2Wales tender, satisfy a professional indemnity insurer, or reassure corporate clients, we prepare your systems, fix what needs fixing and take you through certification smoothly.
Why professional firms in Wales need Cyber Essentials
Across South Wales, Cyber Essentials has moved from a “nice to have” to a baseline requirement for solicitors, accountants, construction consultancies, engineers and contractors. It is mandatory for many public sector and Sell2Wales tenders, increasingly requested on law firm panel questionnaires, and often reduces cyber insurance premiums.
The five technical controls we sort for you
Most businesses fail Cyber Essentials not because they are reckless, but because the assessment rules are strict about everyday laptops, phones and cloud accounts. Because we are part of Alphabyte IT (managing Cardiff firms’ IT since 2009), we don’t just hand you a checklist — we actually fix the technical gaps:
- Firewalls & home working: Properly configured boundary firewalls on office routers and every laptop working from home.
- Secure configuration: Removing default accounts, disabling unused services, and configuring Microsoft 365 securely.
- Security update management: Ensuring Windows, macOS, iOS, Android and third-party software are patched within 14 days of high-severity releases, and replacing unsupported software.
- User access control: Separating admin accounts from day-to-day accounts and enforcing Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) everywhere.
- Malware protection: Centrally managed endpoint protection across all in-scope devices.
Start with a free security snapshot
Before you pay for an assessment, ask us for a free external security snapshot. We check your public domain, email spoofing protection and web exposure, and give you a plain-English view of how ready you are for Cyber Essentials.
Common questions
How long does Cyber Essentials take to get?
For a typical 5–30 person firm in Cardiff or South Wales, once your devices and Microsoft 365 are tidied up, certification usually takes one to two weeks.
Can you help if we already have an IT provider?
Yes. We can either work alongside your current IT provider to prepare your answers and evidence, or handle the technical remediation directly.