Defence Cyber Certification in Portsmouth

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

Defence Cyber Certification for Portsmouth suppliers

Portsmouth's naval and maritime sector brings a concentrated defence supply chain. If you supply, or want to supply, the UK defence sector from Portsmouth, 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 Portsmouth 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 Portsmouth

Portsmouth's naval base and the maritime engineering base around it generate a long supply chain of ship support, systems integration, logistics and electronics firms. Many of them work to physical security standards already, which helps culturally: the argument for cyber controls lands more easily in an organisation that already accepts pass control and escorted access.

What Portsmouth 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.

• Sensitive drawings and schedules held on network shares with permissions that have never been reviewed.
• Maritime and dockside systems on flat networks with no meaningful boundary between operational and office IT.
• Long-lived service accounts with static passwords, used by integrations nobody now owns.

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 Portsmouth supplier

Portsmouth suppliers working across the naval base tend to have physical security well understood and the digital equivalent less so. The useful framing for Level 0 is that it asks the same questions you already answer about site access, applied to systems: who can get in, is it controlled, and would you know if something failed. Cyber Essentials is the mechanism; the mindset is already there.