Cologne/Germany, March 19th, 2019. Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in particular often find it difficult to adequately protect themselves against cybercrime and the loss of important data, since comprehensive security measures entail high costs and considerable effort. To remedy this situation, the Confederation of Fire Protection Associations Europe (CFPA Europe), an alliance of more than 20 national safety organizations, has now developed the first European cybersecurity guideline especially for SMEs: the CFPA-E Guideline No 11:2018 S, “Guideline on Cyber Security for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises.” This is based on the well-known German Guideline VdS 10000 (formerly VdS 3473) and provides an approach that enables small and medium-sized enterprises to protect themselves against cyber risks in an appropriate and affordable way. 

The CFPA-E Guideline No 11:2018 was published by CFPA Europe at the end of 2018 and is available free of charge at www.cfpa-e.eu.

Endorsement by European insurance association

The association Insurance Europe has officially endorsed the new guideline: For the first time, European guidelines are thus now available that are specially tailored to the needs of SMEs and are supported both by renowned safety institutes throughout Europe and by the European insurance sector.
The guideline helps SMEs to improve their information security so that they can better resist cyberattacks. This resilience can be examined and certified on the basis of the guideline in audits – and thus also verified for dealings with business partners and insurers.

VdS 10000 Guideline also available free of charge

The Guideline VdS 10000 is still available free of charge to interested German parties at www.vds-shop.de. If you would like more information on implementing the guideline, you can also book one of the popular VdS seminars on this topic (www.vds.de/lehrgaenge/cyber).

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Small and medium-sized enterprises are vulnerable to attacks from cyber criminals. With the new “CFPA-E Guideline No 11:2018 S, Cyber Security for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises” the Confederation of Fire Protection Associations Europe (CFPA Europe) is making the first European cybersecurity guideline available especially to meet the requirements of SMEs.

About VdS:

VdS is one of the world's most renowned institutions for corporate safety and security. 500 experts offer a unique range of services for fire protection, security, cyber-security and natural hazard prevention.
Services include risk assessments, testing and certification, inspections, information systems for natural hazards and an extensive training program. In addition, the independent institute sets international safety and security standards with the publication of a comprehensive set of Guidelines.
The optimal protection of our partners is based on a worldwide unique safeguarding concept whose reliability builds on more than 110 years of VdS-experience, combining all core aspects of loss prevention. Decision-makers around the world rely on VdS-approved reliability and certainty.

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