ISO 9001 is a globally recognized standard for quality management systems (QMS) developed and published by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). It outlines the criteria for organizations to establish, implement, maintain, and continuously improve their quality management systems. The goal of ISO 9001 is to help organizations ensure that their products and services consistently meet customer requirements and regulatory standards while enhancing customer satisfaction.
ISO 9001 provides a framework for organizations to:
Achieving ISO 9001 certification involves undergoing an audit by a certification body to assess whether the organization’s quality management system meets the requirements specified in the standard. Certification demonstrates to customers, suppliers, and other stakeholders that the organization is committed to delivering quality products and services and has processes in place to ensure consistency and continual improvement.
ISO 9001 is pivotal for your business due to its role in implementing a robust QMS. Here’s why it’s crucial:
Customer Satisfaction:
Emphasis on meeting customer requirements leads to increased satisfaction, loyalty, and positive referrals.
Operational Efficiency:
Focus on process optimization and continuous improvement streamlines operations, eliminates waste, and enhances efficiency.
Credibility and Reputation:
Certification demonstrates commitment to quality, enhancing credibility, reputation, and differentiation from competitors.
Regulatory Compliance:
Ensures alignment with legal and regulatory requirements, reducing the risk of non-compliance and legal issues.
Continuous Improvement Culture:
Fosters a culture of innovation and learning, driving organizational growth and excellence.
Business Opportunities:
Certification expands business opportunities, making it a requirement for tenders and contracts, especially in government and large organizations.
Risk Management:
Helps identify and manage risks related to quality management, preventing incidents and reducing the likelihood of reputational damage.
Implementing ISO 9001 aligns quality management with customer satisfaction, operational efficiency, credibility, regulatory compliance, continuous improvement, business growth, and risk management. It establishes a foundation for consistent quality, organizational excellence, and positions your business as a trusted provider in your industry.
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Unsupported operating systems will not meet Cyber Essentials or Cyber Essential Plus certification and organisations often feel pressured to upgrade their systems, which could mean significantly increased costs and having to re-engineer applications to run on new platforms.
If you are developing, or have developed your own applications, you need to be able to deploy safely and securely and meet the requirements of Cyber Essentials and Cyber Essentials Plus, this is where our Legacy Application Security solution from Droplet will enable you to meet the requirements without the additional burden and overhead of re-platforming your legacy applications and operating systems.
Most companies rely on digital offerings and services as part of their day to day business, but where there is information technology there is an element of information security risk. These organisations will at some time come under some form of threat from cyber criminals. This self-assessment and audited Cyber Essentials option will give you protection against a wide variety of the most common cyber-attacks.
Your Cyber Essentials certification will:
In April 2023, the NCSC and its Cyber Essentials delivery partner IASME will update the technical requirements for Cyber Essentials. This update is part of a regular review of the scheme’s technical controls, ensuring that it continues to help UK organisations guard against the most common cyber threats.
After a major update last year – the biggest update to the scheme since it was first set up in 2014 – the 2023 update will be lighter touch, providing a number of clarifications, alongside some important new guidance. This includes:
User devices.
With the exception of network devices (such as firewalls and routers), all user devices declared within the scope of the certification only require the make and operating system to be listed. We have removed the requirement for the applicant to list the model of the device. This change will be reflected in the self-assessment question set, rather than the requirements document.
Clarification on firmware.
All firmware is currently included in the definition of ‘software’, and so must be kept up to date and supported. Following feedback that this information can be difficult to find, we are changing this to include just router and firewall firmware.
Third party devices.
More information and a new table that clarify how third-party devices, such as contractor or student devices, should be treated in your application.
Device unlocking.
They have made a change there to mitigate some issues around default settings in devices being unconfigurable (such as the number of unsuccessful login attempts before the device is locked). Where that is the case, it’s now acceptable for applicants to use those default settings.
Malware protection.
Anti-malware software will no longer need to be signature based and they have clarified which mechanism is suitable for different types of devices. Sandboxing is removed as an option.
Zero Trust
New guidance on zero trust architecture for achieving CE and a note on the importance of asset management.
Style and language.
Several language and format changes have been made to make the document easier to read.
Structure updated.
The technical controls have been reordered to align with the updated self-assessment question set.
Cyber Essentials and Cyber Essentials Plus Testing.
The CE+ Illustrative Test Specification document has been updated to align with the requirements changes. The biggest change there is a refreshed set of Malware Protection tests, to simplify the process for both applicants and assessors.
All these changes are based on feedback from assessors and applicants, and have been made in consultation with technical experts from the NCSC. As well as the updated requirements and new question set, IASME are also providing more guidance documents to help applicants during the certification process. This includes articles to help applicants understand the questions, as well as access to a dedicated knowledge base.
This latest update (version 3.1) will take effect from 24 April 2023. This means all applications started on or after this date will use the new requirements and question set.
This section highlights testimonials and evaluations from our clients, showcasing how we continuously strive to enhance our services. Your feedback helps us grow and ensures we meet your needs effectively
AEC provided a superb Online ISO9001 Auditor class. One of the most important aspects was their ability to conduct the 4-day class in a live web-based format! In these times of tight budgets this saved our company the associated travel expenses. I highly recommend AEC!
We really enjoyed the 9001 course that we took through AEC and were able to take the knowledge that we gained through that course to allow us to successfully have our ISO certification renewed for another three years. Thank you for your time and assistance.
