PIMSS secures Cyber Essentials Certification

Our commitment to cyber security has recently been recognised with the award of Cyber Essentials Certification from IASME, an Accreditation Body appointed by the government's National Cyber Security Centre for undertaking such assessments.

Companies bidding for central government contracts, which involve handling sensitive and personal information or the provision of certain technical products and services, require Cyber Essentials Certification. The scheme has been introduced by the government in order to further reduce the levels of cyber security risk in its supply chain.

The IASME Governance standard is based on international best practice and is an alternative to ISO27001. It recognises that as a company we are taking good steps to properly protect our customers' information.

To secure the certification we were required to ensure that we met stringent security requirements across our IT infrastructure and under five technical control themes, including firewalls, secure configuration, user access control, malware protection and patch management.

IASME assessment included our software applications including operating systems, scripts, libraries and firmware plus devices including networking equipment, servers, networks and end-user equipment such as desktop computers, laptops, tablets and smartphones.

Commenting on the award of the certification, Martin McDonnell, managing director at PIMSS, comments: "Our security arrangements were already top notch, as you would expect from a software company operating in the public sector, but as we continue to bid for government contracts securing Cyber Essentials certification was a key requirement for us. But we do not see this as a one-off, we review our cyber security on an ongoing basis to ensure the best possible protection for us and all our clients."