How Cyber Essentials Supports Secure Manufacturing in the UK
Our Cyber Essentials certification is one of the ways that we protect your data for more secure digital manufacturing.
As manufacturing becomes increasingly digitalised and relies more heavily on international suppliers, customers need to know that their data is handled securely. The nature of digital manufacturing requires sharing CAD files and other project information across teams and often countries. Our dedication to cybersecurity is a key part of our business at Protolabs. We implement industry-standard security measures to achieve protection, confidentiality, integrity, and availability of your data. One of these measures is Cyber Essentials: the UK government-backed certification that helps safeguard your information from cyber-attacks.
What is Cyber Essentials?
Backed by the UK government’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), Cyber Essentials is a certification scheme that protects businesses from the most common types of cyber attacks. It’s available to businesses of all sizes across a range of industries, and helps to increase cyber security across supply chains.
The certification ensures that 5 technical controls are in place:
- Secure configuration – an IT setup that minimises ways that criminals can get in
- User access control – the ability to control who has access to data and at what level
- Malware protection – blocking potential viruses
- Security update management – preventing access to systems via vulnerabilities
- Firewalls – implementing security filters between your network and the internet
What it Means for Customers in the UK and Europe
Cyber Essentials helps establish confidence that suppliers can be trusted with sensitive design data throughout the production process. When sharing sensitive information such as CAD files, design specifications, or project details, the Cyber Essentials certification provides assurance that data is handled in line with recognised UK cybersecurity standards. This reduced risk is a top concern of procurement, compliance, and security teams.
Cyber Essentials and Your Industry
Cyber Essentials is relevant to any UK organisation that handles sensitive data or operates digital systems, but it is especially important in industries where intellectual property, such as customer data is critical.
It is commonly expected in the following sectors:
- Aerospace & defence – Cyber Essentials is required for Ministry of Defence suppliers for all of their supply chain that handles defence information. This is due to the reputational and contractual risks of weak data security in this sector
- Manufacturing – protection of CAD files, designs, and proprietary processes
- Technology & electronics – safeguarding systems, platforms, and customer data
- Automotive and transportation – complex supply chains and connected systems
- Medical – sensitive patient and device data
- Energy and infrastructure – resilience against disruption
For many organisations, Cyber Essentials is no longer a “nice to have” but a baseline requirement to do business, particularly when working with larger enterprises or government-linked customers.
Cyber Resilience Across Europe
In addition to our Cyber Essentials certification, Protolabs adheres to other industry-standard security measures and recognised frameworks across Europe to support controlled access, secure processing, and protection of customer data and design files across our operations.
Frequently Asked Questions About Cyber Essentials
What is Cyber Essentials and why is it important in manufacturing?
expand_less expand_moreCyber Essentials is a UK government-backed cybersecurity certification that helps organisations protect against common cyber threats. For manufacturing suppliers, it is particularly important because it demonstrates that appropriate technical controls are in place to protect sensitive data such as CAD files, design specifications, and customer information throughout the process of digital manufacturing.
Is Cyber Essentials required for aerospace and defence manufacturing in the UK?
expand_less expand_moreCyber Essentials is often a minimum requirement for organisations working within the UK aerospace and defence supply chain. Many primes and Tier 1 suppliers expect Cyber Essentials certification as part of supplier risk, compliance, and cybersecurity assessments.
Does Cyber Essentials protect CAD files and design data?
expand_less expand_moreCyber Essentials confirms that baseline technical controls are implemented to reduce the risk of unauthorised access, malware, and data compromise. The certification provides assurance that recognised cybersecurity measures are in place to protect digital information during upload, processing, and storage.
Visit our FAQ for more information about security and compliance.
