Cyber Essentials Plus Endpoint Samples

Cyber Essentials Plus endpoint sampling has a very annoying habit of revealing what everyone already half-knew. These pre-assessment samples are the ones that surface most often.

One laptop has not checked in for weeks. One user still has local admin because an old application was awkward. One device never onboarded into Defender properly. One machine is still on an operating system version nobody wants to talk about. None of this is unusual. It is just what drifts look like in real estates.

That is why pre-checks matter. Not to manufacture confidence, but to stop obvious gaps from pretending to be surprises later.

Start with the sample mindset

The most useful question is this:

If someone picked a normal staff device at random, would I trust the result?

That is the right bar. If your answer depends on picking a carefully groomed subset, you are not really checking readiness yet.

The six checks that catch most pain

Check	What you want to see
Device inventory	A current list of business devices with clear ownership
Support state	Supported Windows versions and supported core software
Update posture	Current patch visibility, especially for high-risk fixes
Malware protection	Defender or equivalent present, active, and reporting
Privilege control	Normal users do not have unnecessary admin rights
Firewall and security policy	Device controls are applied and not quietly failing

That looks basic because it is basic. CE+ is supposed to measure whether the basics actually hold.

What to look at in Microsoft tooling

For Microsoft 365-centric estates, I would review:

1. Intune device compliance and recent check-in status.
2. Defender for Endpoint onboarding coverage.
3. Endpoint security policy status, especially antivirus and firewall areas.
4. Windows update reporting and any devices consistently behind.
5. Known browser and third-party patch exposure.

The goal is not to turn one console green. The goal is to make sure the same machines show up consistently across inventory, management, security, and patch views.

A few easy misses

These are the ones that waste time:

• Devices assigned to leavers but never properly retired.
• Test laptops that quietly became production laptops.
• Machines that are in Entra and Intune but not healthy in Defender.
• Temporary local admin that stopped being temporary.
• Older devices left on supported-but-ignored software channels.

If any of those exist, write them down and deal with them openly. A documented exception with an owner is still far better than a mystery.

Evidence to keep handy

For endpoint sampling, I would keep a small, usable evidence pack:

Evidence item	Why it helps
Device inventory export	Confirms the sample belongs to the estate you say it does
Compliance report	Shows baseline control coverage
Defender onboarding or health view	Proves endpoint protection is present and reporting
Update report	Supports patching claims
Local admin review notes	Shows privilege is being controlled, not assumed
Exceptions list	Explains anything not yet fully remediated

That is enough to support a proper conversation without burying everyone in screenshots.

References

• NCSC: Cyber Essentials overview
• Microsoft Learn: Endpoint security in Microsoft Intune
• Microsoft Learn: Onboarding using Microsoft Intune for Defender for Endpoint
• Microsoft Learn: Supported versions of Windows client