Defence Cyber Certification for Manufacturers

DCC Level 0 and the Cyber Essentials it requires, for manufacturers in the defence supply chain, from one Certification Body.

Why manufacturers need Defence Cyber Certification

Manufacturers supplying components, equipment or materials to defence primes are firmly in scope. Defence buyers increasingly expect suppliers to evidence their cyber security through Defence Cyber Certification, and individual MoD contracts are already specifying a required level. If you supply the defence sector, or want to, DCC is becoming part of the price of entry.

The four DCC levels, and where Cyber Essentials fits

Defence Cyber Certification has four levels, set by the cyber risk profile of the contract. Level 0 is the supply chain floor for very low assessed risk and has just three controls: hold Cyber Essentials covering the contract scope, process personal data in compliance with UK GDPR, and build resilience into your systems. Level 1 jumps to 101 controls, Level 2 to 139 and Level 3 to 144, so the step from Level 0 to Level 1 is far larger than the numbering suggests. Your level is assigned by the MoD delivery team through the contract's Cyber Risk Profile rather than chosen by you. Crucially, every level requires Cyber Essentials, and Levels 2 and 3 require Cyber Essentials Plus as well. Cyber Essentials is the technical baseline for every level.

How Solusec helps

We are a Defence Cyber Certification Body appointed to assess and certify Level 0, and we are a Cyber Essentials Certification Body too, so we can certify the Cyber Essentials that Level 0 requires at the same time, with no handoffs. For Level 1 we provide scope reviews, gap analysis across the controls and evidence preparation. Level 2 and Level 3 assessments, which require Cyber Essentials Plus, we refer to a body appointed for those levels.

The defence supply chain in manufacturers

Manufacturers supplying defence usually fail on the shop floor rather than in the office. Capital equipment has a twenty-year life and the embedded software inside it does not get updated, which collides directly with the requirement that everything in scope runs supported software.

What manufacturers suppliers most often have to fix first

These are the blockers that come up repeatedly here. All three are worth checking before you start an application, because each one is a remediation project rather than a paperwork exercise.

• CNC, inspection and press equipment running embedded operating systems past vendor support.
• Manufacturing execution systems that only run on legacy platforms.
• Shared workshop logins that cannot satisfy user access control as written.

None of these stops you certifying. All of them decide whether you certify in two weeks or two months, which is the difference that matters with the MoD's 31 December 2026 expectation in view.

Why this matters now

The Ministry of Defence has asked all industry partners to achieve DCC Level 0 by 31 December 2026. It is an ask rather than a contractual mandate: IASME, which runs the scheme, states that DCC is not currently mandatory, and holding it does not yet exempt you from the Supplier Assurance Questionnaire. The requirement that binds you contractually today is DEFCON 658 and the Cyber Security Model. Individual MoD contracts are already specifying a required DCC level, and you cannot bid above your certified level. Getting Level 0 and your Cyber Essentials in place now keeps you eligible and ahead of the rush.

What Level 0 looks like for a manufacturing supplier

For manufacturers the Level 0 blocker is nearly always shop-floor equipment running embedded software the vendor stopped supporting. If that equipment touches contract data it is in scope, and the options are segregation with a documented rationale, replacement, or a vendor upgrade path. None of those is quick, which is why this should be the first thing you check.