EvidenceSheet
UK Cyber Essentials · Secure Configuration

SC.5 Password-Based Authentication Quality

Where passwords are the only factor, protect against brute force by lockout (max 10 attempts in 5 min), throttling, or by enforcing one of: MFA, password length 12+, length 8+ with deny list, or length 8+ with technical controls.

Source: UK Cyber Essentials, SC.5. The statement above is our statement of the clause, read from the published text and cited so you can check it against the official text, not the instrument verbatim. Open UK Cyber Essentials in the compliance library.

The version of the requirements is not stamped here; check the question set your certification body uses.

3
artefacts
3
held by a system
0
at each review
easy
to go live
Identity provider / directory
where the evidence lives
teal = a system already holds it · olive = produced at each review. To go live: easy when half or more of the artefacts are already held by a system, moderate from a quarter to a half, hard below a quarter.

These are the artefacts auditors commonly ask for on this requirement, our guidance rather than text from the standard. Your assessor decides what is sufficient in your context, and asks for samples across the period when a report covers one.

system holds itEvidence a system already holds

  • AD/Entra password policy export · Identity provider / directory
  • Account lockout config · Identity provider / directory
  • MFA enrolment report · Identity provider / directory

periodic reviewEvidence produced at each review

none for this control

governing documentDocuments that govern the control

none for this control

First move

Automate the pull from your Identity provider / directory. Scheduled export of users, roles and MFA state from the directory; access-review completion pulled from the IdP, not a spreadsheet.

Common gaps auditors find

Do this for your whole sheet

Paste the rows you run your controls from and get this mapping for every control at once, with the periodic-review ones flagged and a first move per row. No account for the first run.

Build my evidence sheet

SC.4 Authenticate Users Before Access · SC.6 Multi-Factor Authentication for Cloud Services