Cyber Essentials and cyber insurance: what's actually required

Cyber Essentials (Basic) certification in the UK currently comes with the option of free cyber liability insurance bundled in, at no extra cost, but it's opt-in, not automatic, and it depends on eligibility: broadly, your head office needs to be in the UK or a Crown Dependency, with gross annual turnover under £20m.

It's a genuine benefit, but it's scoped specifically to the certified boundary. It's not a replacement for your business's wider commercial or cyber insurance, just a useful addition that comes with certifying in the first place.

Separately, many businesses find that holding Cyber Essentials makes their existing cyber insurance cheaper or easier to obtain, since it's independent evidence of the basic controls insurers usually ask about anyway. Run the free 5-minute readiness check to see where you stand before applying.