What is Cyber Essentials?
We are pleased to have successfully renewed our Cyber Essentials certification. Cyber Essentials is a UK government backed standard that demonstrates we meet essential technical controls to protect against the most common cyber threats.
How did we get certified?
We completed a structured review of our IT estate and policies, closed any gaps, implemented improved configurations and controls, and submitted our evidence to an accredited certifier. This work included guiding our staff on secure working practices, ensuring technology and people together, reduce any cyber risk.
Why is our certification important to our schools?
Our schools entrust us with sensitive information and rely on us to manage procurement data, staff data, contracts and supplier communications – securely. Cyber Essentials shows we have the critical cyber hygiene in place to reduce the risk of attacks that could disrupt our services or expose protected data.
What this means in practice:
1 – Safer data handling – your procurement and contract information is managed to a recognised security baseline.
2 – Lower supplier risk – choosing a Cyber Essentials certified partner reduces supply chain vulnerability for your school or trust.
3 – Easier compliance – when Cyber Essentials is requested in procurement or risk assessments, we already meet that requirement.
4 – GDPR alignment – our technical controls support GDPR principles of confidentiality, integrity and availability and help us meet incident reporting obligations.
5 – Ongoing commitment – certification is not a one‑off — we maintain controls, patch management and staff awareness to keep security current.
Engaging RIVA with confidence
Our Cyber Essentials allows schools and trusts to engage us with confidence as we are serious about cyber security, your data, and have taken certified steps to ensure security!
