Yes... You heard that correctly.

The Legal Aid Agency now MANDATES law firms who rely on them to have Cyber Essentials in place.  At circa £600, Cyber Essentials is the most basic step you can take to demonstrate you've thought about security. 

It's like a 'provisional drivers licence'... It tells people that you're on the way to becoming a safer road user!

What prompted this?
Well if you work with the government having Cyber Essentials has been mandatory for a while, but my guess is that the Legal Aid Agency are cracking down on this, prompted to do so because THEY were the victim of a Cyber Attack back in April.

You can read about the breach here... https://www.gov.uk/government/news/legal-aid-agency-data-breach

You can read more about the mandatory requirements here... https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/legal-aid-agency-data-security-requirements

So the 'news' today is this...

The Legal Aid Agency has made it mandatory for all law firms to have Cyber Essentials if they want to register and receive work from OCT 25

If you know anyone who relies upon the Legal Aid Agency for work, please let them know - and tell them to contact me for support on achieving Cyber Essentials.

Thanks.