Cyber Essentials & CE Plus Certification Readiness Services
Cyber Essentials Certification Services In Newcastle, the North East and Nationwide.
Achieve recognised UK security standards with fully guided Cyber Essentials services. As an experienced Cyber Essentials company, we help prepare your business for both Cyber Essentials certification and Cyber Essentials Plus certification, by guiding you through the process which reduces risk and improves your overall security posture and compliance.
Our Valued Customers
Guided Cyber Essentials
We support full Cyber Essentials readiness and preparation, helping you answer confidently and accurately.
Soft Submission Support
Your assessment is reviewed before submission, improving accuracy and reducing the risk of failure.
End‑to‑End Cyber Essentials
From gap analysis to remediation and audit readiness, we manage the full process for you, supporting you through every step.
Cyber Essentials Plus Preparation
We help you achieve Cyber Essentials Plus readiness, preparing your environment for audit and technical validation.
Cyber Essentials Services That Strengthen Your Security Posture
Cyber Essentials certification is a UK government‑backed scheme designed to demonstrate that your organisation meets a defined baseline of security controls. It supports eligibility for certain government contracts, can strengthen your cyber insurance position, and is also recognised as a strong indicator of security maturity by customers, partners and insurers. Our Cyber Essentials preparation services help you understand what is required across your infrastructure, endpoints, users and access controls, ensuring you are properly prepared before submission.
Many organisations struggle to interpret the assessment requirements or accurately reflect their security posture. We remove this ambiguity by supporting your Cyber Essentials readiness through structured guidance, gap analysis and remediation planning. This ensures your answers reflect your environment correctly, reducing the risk of failure and helping you achieve certification with confidence, while strengthening your overall governance and compliance position.
How our Cyber Essentials services work
Cyber Essentials
Cyber Essentials is a self‑assessment certification, where your organisation completes a structured questionnaire covering key areas such as malware protection, firewalls, device security and user access.
Cyber Essentials Plus
Cyber Essentials Plus uses the same requirements but includes a technical audit, where assessors validate your answers against real systems. A sample of devices is tested to ensure controls are correctly implemented.
Why Choose Trustack?
Customer‑First Support
We put our customers first always. We guide you through the certification process clearly, avoiding unnecessary complexity.
Excellence Through Teamwork
Our security and infrastructure specialists work together to ensure your environment meets requirements.
Trusted Expertise & Integrity
We rigorously test every solution to ensure it’s right for your business, and ensure your certification reflects your true security posture.
Trusted Expertise That Supports Your Compliance
At Trustack, we focus on helping organisations build strong governance and compliance foundations through services such as cyber essentials and ISO 27001. As a North East‑based provider with national reach, we combine hands‑on support with deep technical expertise, helping you confidently meet recognised standards and demonstrate trust to customers and stakeholders consistently.
Cyber Essentials and Cyber Essentials Plus certification services sit within our wider cyber security offering, supporting areas such as endpoint protection, network security and vulnerability management. This ensures certification is part of an ongoing approach to improving your organisation’s security and compliance posture.
Hear From Our Customers
Unipres
Andrew Furness
Controller - Information Systems, Unipres UK Limited
“Trustack has been a trusted partner of Unipres for 11 years now. The stack of products they’ve worked with us to implement at Unipres has grown from an initial implementation of VMware vSphere to VMware Horizon, Veaam Backup and Replication and Trend Deep Security to name a few. We feel confident that they will implement specialist manufacturing IT solutions tailored to our business needs and deliver them to the requirements and quality Unipres expect as an organisation.”
Collingwood Business Solutions
Michael Ward
IT Director, Collingwood Business Solutions Limited
“Trustack are a trusted partner who have worked with us for a number of years. They know our business and have in depth knowledge of our complex infrastructure whether that be security, networking, virtualisation or any other parts that play an integral role in our success as an IT service provider and Insurance distribution business. Trustack have been a major part of Collingwood’s success working with us to enable us to scale accordingly with innovative solutions and robust security”
Muckle LLP
Andrew Black
Director of IT, Muckle LLP
“We rely on Trustack to help us deliver innovative, cost-effective technology. Their extensive technical knowledge and legal industry experience means they always offer us reasoned, pragmatic advice.”
“Trustack always stay one step ahead when it comes to providing the latest products and services. They understand our business and work proactively with our IT team to ensure we always deliver the best service to the firm and our clients.”
Our Case Studies
Cyber Essentials FAQs
What is the technical difference between a standard Cyber Essentials and a Cyber Essentials Plus audit?
Cyber Essentials is a self‑assessment based on a structured questionnaire. Cyber Essentials Plus includes a technical audit where your systems are tested to validate your responses. You have up to six months to complete your Cyber Essentials assessment when using supported preparation services. Once certified, you have three months to achieve the Cyber Essentials Plus certification.
What are the automatic failure criteria under the latest Danzell question set requirements and how do we prepare for them?
Automatic failures typically occur where mandatory controls are missing or incorrectly implemented, for example, lack of MFA, outdated patching, or excessive user permissions. Preparation focuses on identifying these gaps early through assessment and remediation, ensuring your environment aligns fully with the requirements before submission.
How does achieving Cyber Essentials Plus status impact our eligibility for UK central government and public sector contracts?
Cyber Essentials certification is often a baseline requirement for working with UK government and public sector organisations, particularly when handling sensitive data. Cyber Essentials Plus provides a higher level of assurance through independent testing, helping strengthen your eligibility and improve trust with partners and clients.
How does the random device sampling process work during a Cyber Essentials Plus audit if a device fails the initial check?
During a Cyber Essentials Plus audit, a selection of devices from your environment are tested. If any devices fail the checks, such as missing patches or insecure configurations, they must be remediated and re‑tested before certification can be granted. This process can be iterative, so preparation and consistency across devices is key.
What counts as being 'in scope' for our infrastructure and can we exclude certain cloud services or BYOD devices?
The scope of a Cyber Essentials assessment defines which systems, users and services are covered by the certification. Getting the scope right is an important part of the process, as it needs to accurately reflect the environment being assessed. During our Cyber Essentials readiness review, we help you define and validate scope, ensuring it is clearly documented and aligned with the certification requirements before submission.
How does Cyber Essentials compare to an ISO 27001 certification or a standard penetration test for a UK SME?
Cyber Essentials focuses on a defined set of baseline technical controls. ISO 27001 is a broader, organisation‑wide information security management framework, while penetration testing identifies specific vulnerabilities through simulated attacks. Many SMEs use Cyber Essentials as a starting point, then build towards ISO or regular testing as their security matures.