Defence Cyber Certification in the North East

DCC Level 0 assessment and certification for defence suppliers in the North East, with the Cyber Essentials it requires, from one Certification Body.

Defence Cyber Certification for North East suppliers

The North East's manufacturing and engineering base supplies defence primes across the UK. If you supply, or want to supply, the UK defence sector from the North East, Defence Cyber Certification is becoming essential: it is the MoD-backed scheme, delivered by IASME under Defence Standard 05-138, that evidences your cyber security to defence buyers. We help North East businesses get certified without the usual runaround, working remotely first so location is no barrier.

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 the North East

The North East supplies defence through heavy engineering, armoured vehicle systems, subsea and offshore technology, and a substantial manufacturing base along the Tyne, Wear and Tees. Much of this work is dual-use, which means firms often meet several overlapping assurance regimes.

What the North East 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.

• Industrial control and test systems that cannot be patched on a 14-day cycle.
• Flat networks with no separation between production and office IT.
• Shared operational accounts used across shift patterns.

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 North East supplier

North East suppliers in heavy engineering and subsea often run dual-use operations, meaning the same systems serve defence and commercial customers. That usually simplifies Level 0, because the scope is the organisation rather than a carve-out, but it makes the resilience control more substantive: more customers depend on the same systems staying up.