QG ACE Consultants assist businesses by defining the equipment/systems required to meet a Cyber Essentials & Cyber Essentials Plus assessment.
Introduction
QG Business Solutions Ltd are one of only three accreditation bodies contracted to the UK Government for the accreditation and certification to the new Cyber Essentials standard.
Roles and Responsibilities
For Cyber Essentials to be adopted by large numbers of businesses QG Business Solutions believe that a competitive marketplace will need to be created amongst Certification Bodies, IT Consultants and IT Implementers so that they work hard to gain new customers. Therefore the following principles will apply;
- Certification Bodies, ACE Consultants , ACE Implementers set their own fees and product support mechanisms;
- Certification Bodies achieve approval based on their delivery quality assurance mechanisms
- Centrally defined process are kept to a minimum so as to maximise creativity, productivity, continuous improvement and competitiveness;
- Certification Bodies, ACE Consultants and ACE Implementers carry out their own marketing campaigns alongside the national campaign carried out by CESG/GCHQ;
- The Accreditation Body assesses, monitors, moderates and manages the Certification Bodies, ACE Consultants and ACE Implementers to ensure consistency of delivery.
- The Accreditation Body approves any deviation from the agreed operating manual including any proposed changes to the testing specification/assessment methodology.
- The Accreditation Body administers core data handling, certificate issuing and reporting to CESG
- Accredited QG Cyber Essentials Consultants assist businesses who need it, by defining the equipment/systems required to meet a CE & CE+ assessment
QG ACE Consultant Status
Let’s be clear from the start you do not have to be accredited by QG to offer advice to client companies in achieving Cyber Essentials and Cyber Essentials Plus certification.
Now we’ve got that out of the way let’s concentrate on why you should consider becoming an QG ACE Consultant.
QG ACE Consultants are;
- Trained by QG Management Standards who work directly with CESG on the scheme,
- Tested to ensure they correctly understand the requirements of the scheme,
- Informed on any changes to the scheme,
- Awarded a certificate to show businesses that they know what they are talking about,
- Certified to the Cyber Essentials standard and
- Promoted by certification bodies as scheme experts
When an ACE consultant has visited a site we would expect the self-assessment questionnaire to be completed – comprehensively, inventories will be created, network diagrams drawn-up (to define the scope) and evidence referenced by document name (and if no document exists, help in creating the document), and help in adding compensating controls if it is found that the company cannot strictly abide by the CE requirements. ACE Consultants can call on the help of ACE Implementers to make technical changes to devices.
Scope of Certification
The ACE Consultants Certificate belongs primarily to the sponsoring company but also the individual. If an individual leaves the sponsoring company he/she cannot take the status with them to another company. The certificate with state;
• …. Joe Bloggs of IT Company Ltd is certified to QG ACE Consultant Standard.
Certificates can be changed if the new employer already has QG ACE Consultants (conditions apply).
Only individuals who have QG ACE Consultant status may advise clients on meeting the standard if contracted to do so. This is similar to the GAS SAFE model.
How to become a QG ACE Consultant
ACE Consultant Certification
We organise Consultant events every other month, held in London where our trainer will;
- deliver one days of training to an audience of up to 10 delegates,
- train delegates in the standards that meet the requirements of the Cyber Essentials scheme,
- walk delegates through a Cyber Essentials assessment of individual companies,
- test delegates to ensure they understand their roles and the Cyber Essentials requirements,
- award individuals with their QG ACE Practitioner certificate
- award individual businesses with their Cyber Essentials certificate
and annually;
- provide updates to the QG ACE Consultants
- renew certificates
Assessment Guides & Questionnaires
Assessment guides and questionnaires have been created for both stage 1 and stage 2 assessments. QG ACE Consultants are required to understand the guides thus ensuring conformance of delivery.
Next Steps
If you are interested in becoming a QG ACE Consultant call 01228 631681 or email info@qgbiz.co.uk