Shropshire Chamber member Solusec has been appointed a Cyber Essentials Plus Certification Body by IASME, and has achieved CREST accreditation under its Cyber Assurance scheme for Cyber Audit. The practice, based at The Red House in Albrighton, now assesses and certifies organisations at both Cyber Essentials levels directly, alongside its existing penetration testing and consultancy work.

Cyber Essentials is the UK Government-backed standard that sets out the five technical controls every organisation should have in place. It is increasingly a condition of doing business: government contracts, NHS and MoD supply chains, insurers and a growing number of larger private sector buyers now ask for it before they will sign. Cyber Essentials Plus adds an independent, hands-on audit of those controls, carried out by a qualified assessor, and is the level most larger buyers now expect.

What this means for Shropshire businesses:

  • Cyber Essentials Plus audits from a local, accredited body, with an assessor who comes to site rather than working from a national call centre.
  • A route into bigger contracts. Many tenders filter on Cyber Essentials at the first stage, so certification opens doors that are otherwise closed to smaller suppliers.
  • Independent assurance that stands up to scrutiny. CREST accreditation means Solusec’s methodology, people and quality processes have been externally examined.
  • An assessor who thinks like an attacker. The controls are checked by someone who spends the rest of the week finding real vulnerabilities in live systems, so the audit tests what matters rather than what is easy to tick.
  • Further support where it is needed. Solusec also holds an IASME Cyber Assurance Certification Body licence and delivers Defence Cyber Certification Level 0 for organisations supplying the defence sector.

Solusec is led by Daly Whyte (CISSP, PraCSP, CREST CRT, OSWE, OSCP), whose career spans 25 years across IT and cyber security. Alongside running the practice, Daly is an active ethical hacker and a contributing member of the Synack Red Team, an invitation-only group of vetted security researchers from more than 90 countries who test systems for global organisations. Inducted in 2022, he has been recognised by Synack with its Hero award in 2023, 2024 and 2026, the Olympian award in 2025, Circle of Trust status and three consecutive years as an SRT Envoy, and is listed in the Synack Acropolis, its hall of fame for distinguished researchers: acropolis.synack.com/inductees/d4ly. He has more than 500 findings across the major bug bounty platforms and holds multiple CVEs for vulnerabilities he has discovered and responsibly disclosed.

Solusec is happy to talk through what Cyber Essentials, Cyber Essentials Plus, or CREST accredited Penetration Testing would involve for any Chamber member’s organisation. For more information or an informal chat, contact us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.