Cyber Essentials Plus: What Accountancy Firms Need to Know

Accountancy firms hold some of the most sensitive data in the UK economy — client financial records, tax details, and privileged access to client banking and HMRC systems. That makes firms an attractive target, and increasingly clients, insurers, and regulators expect proof of a baseline level of cyber security. Cyber Essentials and Cyber Essentials Plus are the government-backed certifications built for exactly that.

What's the difference between Cyber Essentials and Cyber Essentials Plus?

Cyber Essentials is a self-assessment questionnaire covering five technical controls: firewalls, secure configuration, user access control, malware protection, and patch management. Cyber Essentials Plus adds an independent, hands-on technical audit of those same controls, carried out by a certified assessor — giving clients real assurance rather than a self-declared checklist.

Why it matters for accountancy firms specifically

Many professional services firms now require Cyber Essentials as a condition of doing business with them, and cyber insurers increasingly price premiums around it. Beyond compliance, the certification process itself tends to surface real gaps — unpatched servers, over-privileged user accounts, weak endpoint protection — that firms didn't know they had.

Getting started

A typical engagement starts with a gap assessment against the five Cyber Essentials controls, followed by remediation, then certification. For firms considering ISO 27001 as a next step, Cyber Essentials Plus is a strong foundation, since many of the technical controls overlap.

If you're weighing up Cyber Essentials Plus for your firm, get in touch — we work exclusively with accountancy and professional services firms and can talk you through what's actually involved.