In today's interconnected world, your organization faces unprecedented cyber threats that can disrupt operations, compromise sensitive data, and damage your reputation. For operators of essential services and critical national infrastructure, these risks are magnified by regulatory requirements and the potential for widespread impact.
The Cyber Assessment Framework (CAF) provides you with a structured approach to assessing and improving your cybersecurity posture, ensuring you not only meet regulatory obligations but build genuine resilience against evolving threats.
Delivering measurable improvements to your cybersecurity posture
Identify and address security gaps across your entire organization with a holistic assessment methodology that covers people, processes, and technology.
Meet your obligations under the NIS Regulations and other sector-specific requirements with confidence, avoiding potential penalties and enforcement actions.
Establish your current security maturity level and track improvements over time with clear metrics and benchmarks aligned with industry standards.
Develop a prioritized improvement plan based on risk assessment and business impact, ensuring efficient allocation of your security resources.
Demonstrate your commitment to cybersecurity to regulators, customers, partners, and investors through a recognized assessment framework.
Establish a cycle of ongoing assessment and enhancement that evolves with changing threats, technologies, and business requirements.
A structured approach to cybersecurity assessment
The Cyber Assessment Framework is organized into four key objectives, each containing multiple principles and contributing outcomes. This comprehensive structure ensures all aspects of your cybersecurity posture are thoroughly evaluated:
Governance, risk management, asset management, supply chain, and resilient networks and systems.
Service protection policies, identity and access control, data security, system security, resilient networks, staff awareness and training.
Security monitoring, proactive security event discovery, and security event analysis.
Response and recovery planning, lessons learned, and vulnerability management.
Specialized protection for essential services
Protect vital communication networks and services with tailored CAF assessments that address the unique challenges of the telecommunications sector.
Starting at £25,000
Comprehensive assessment with tailored recommendations
Secure maritime operations and port facilities with specialized CAF implementations designed for the marine transport sector.
Starting at £30,000
Sector-specific assessment with regulatory alignment
Implement the highest levels of cybersecurity for nuclear facilities with rigorous CAF assessments that meet stringent regulatory requirements.
Starting at £45,000
Comprehensive assessment with regulatory compliance verification
A proven methodology for effective implementation
We work with you to define the scope of the assessment, identifying critical systems, key stakeholders, and specific regulatory requirements that apply to your organization.
Our experts gather comprehensive evidence through documentation review, interviews with key personnel, technical testing, and observation of security practices.
We evaluate your current security posture against all applicable CAF outcomes, determining achievement levels for each indicator and identifying specific gaps.
We analyze identified gaps, prioritizing them based on risk level, regulatory importance, and potential business impact to create a focused remediation strategy.
We develop a detailed improvement roadmap with specific recommendations, timelines, resource requirements, and clear responsibilities for implementation.
Our team provides expert guidance and hands-on assistance to help you implement the recommended improvements effectively and efficiently.
We conduct follow-up assessments to verify improvements, measure progress, and provide comprehensive reporting for internal stakeholders and regulators.
Ensuring your supply chain meets the same high standards
Your security is only as strong as your weakest link. With increasing reliance on third-party suppliers, ensuring their cybersecurity practices meet your standards is essential. Our CAF-aligned supplier questionnaire audits help you:
Replace ad-hoc supplier evaluations with a structured, consistent methodology based on CAF principles.
Reduce supplier frustration with our streamlined, focused questionnaires that capture essential information without unnecessary complexity.
Move beyond self-attestation with our validation techniques that verify supplier claims through evidence review and targeted testing.
Ensure your supplier assessment process satisfies regulatory requirements for supply chain security oversight.
Our supplier questionnaire audits are tailored to meet requirements across multiple jurisdictions:
Aligned with NIST CSF, CMMC, and sector-specific regulations
Compatible with CCCS guidance and Canadian critical infrastructure requirements
Mapped to the Essential Eight and Australian Energy Sector Cyber Security Framework
Compliant with NIS2 Directive and sector-specific European regulations
A leading telecommunications provider needed to demonstrate compliance with NIS regulations while strengthening their actual security posture against increasingly sophisticated threats targeting critical infrastructure.
We implemented a comprehensive CAF assessment across their core network operations, identifying 37 specific security gaps across the four CAF objectives. Our team developed a prioritized remediation roadmap and provided implementation support for critical improvements.
If your organization is designated as an Operator of Essential Services (OES) under the NIS Regulations or is part of the UK critical national infrastructure, you may be required to implement the CAF and demonstrate compliance to your competent authority. Even if not legally required, the CAF provides a valuable framework for assessing and improving your cybersecurity posture, particularly for organizations in critical sectors or those supporting essential services. Our team can help determine your specific regulatory obligations and how the CAF can benefit your organization.
The CAF is complementary to other cybersecurity frameworks and standards. There is significant overlap between the CAF and frameworks like ISO 27001, NIST Cybersecurity Framework, and industry-specific standards. Organizations that have implemented these other frameworks will find many of their existing controls contribute to CAF compliance. We specialize in mapping between different frameworks to leverage existing security investments and avoid duplication of effort. Our approach identifies where your current security controls satisfy CAF requirements and where additional measures may be needed.
The duration of a CAF assessment depends on several factors including your organization's size, complexity, and the scope of systems being assessed. Typically, a comprehensive CAF assessment for a medium-sized organization takes 4-8 weeks from initial scoping to delivery of the final report and improvement plan. This includes evidence collection, interviews, technical testing, analysis, and reporting. For larger organizations or those with particularly complex environments, the assessment may take longer. We work with you to develop a realistic timeline based on your specific circumstances and any regulatory deadlines you may be facing.
A comprehensive CAF assessment requires various types of evidence, including:
We provide a detailed evidence request list at the beginning of the assessment and work with you to identify the most efficient ways to collect the required information while minimizing disruption to your operations.
Maintaining CAF compliance is an ongoing process that requires:
We offer ongoing CAF maintenance services to help you sustain compliance, including periodic reassessments, gap analysis, improvement planning, and support for regulatory reporting.
Book a free consultation to discuss how our CAF services can help protect your organization and ensure regulatory compliance.
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