Essential Eight assessments for Northern Beaches businesses
The Essential Eight is the Australian Government’s baseline for stopping the most common cyber attacks. We work out where your business sits today, set a target level that fits how you actually operate, and keep you there. Full turn key service from start to finish.
What the Essential Eight is
The easiest way to explain it is a mixture of the below, to keep you and your company’s data safe.
- Application control
- Patching your apps
- Patching your operating systems
- Restricting admin access
- Multi-factor authentication
- Hardening Microsoft Office macros
- Hardening browsers and PDF readers
- Daily backups you’ve actually tested
Each one is scored against a maturity level from 0 to 3. Level 0 means there’s a gap. Level 3 means you’re well defended against a determined attacker.
Meeting the Essential Eight, without the drama
The Essential Eight is a fantastic baseline given to us by the Australian Government, but at the end of the day a business should be pretty close to the E8 standard even without it. That’s good IT done properly.
Things like MFA, strong backups, computers patched and up to date, these are things that a lot of people are already doing, but haven’t got the framework around it. What we do is help tweak a business’s current standing to meet the guidelines required. This is where the cyber assessments come in, to show us what’s missing and needs tweaking so we can align you with as little drama as possible.
Starting off with a cyber assessment of your current standing against The Essential Eight is the first step in fully securing your business to a standard that’s widely recognised as best practice.
Pick the level that fits your business
Not everyone needs Maturity Level 3. A two person bookkeeping firm and a 50 seat medical practice carry very different risk and very different budgets. We help you choose a target that matches what you do and what your regulatory and insurance requires. Even if you don’t have regulatory or insurance requirements it is recommended to utilise the Essential Eight as a standard to safeguard your business and its data.
The assessment: where you are vs where you need to be
What we do is audit your company’s infrastructure from your computers through to your software applications, on site servers, cloud servers and more and figure out what your company’s baseline level is. Then we can create a plan for you on what to fix to get you to the level where you want to be.
The biggest part is understanding where you currently are as most of the time you think you are secured from certain attacks or failures but the reality is very different.
Drift alignment: staying at your level all year
Hitting your Essential Eight level once is the easy bit. Staying there is the hard bit. Systems change. New software gets installed, a setting gets switched off, a patch gets skipped, someone’s granted admin “just for a minute.” Bit by bit your real security drifts away from the level you signed off on, usually without anyone noticing until something breaks or an auditor asks.
Our drift alignment service watches for exactly that. We keep eyes on the controls that matter, catch the drift early and rectify it immediately, keeping your company exactly aligned with your Essential Eight level.
Being Essential Eight aligned isn’t a set and forget thing and that’s why we are here to help keep you there.
For regulators and insurers
A lot of businesses come to us because someone’s asked them to be audited prior to getting accredited or getting their insurance policy. More often than not, the insurance company will give you coverage even without alignment, only to not cover you later on because you didn’t read their terms of the agreement. The best thing you can do is align yourself with the requirements before the insurance policy even starts, and this is where we come in.
We run the assessment, get you to the level you need, and hand you documented evidence you can pass straight on. If you’re staring at an insurance questionnaire and half of it reads like another language, bring it to us.
Frequently asked questions
Do we have to reach Maturity Level 3?
No. Most small and medium businesses sit at Level 1 or 2. We help you pick a target that matches your risk and obligations, not the priciest option.
How long does it take?
For the report, this is only a few days but for implementation it really depends on the business’s infrastructure. We do our best to keep the timeframe as small as possible and keep the solution simple so you stay aligned for the long term.
We already use Microsoft 365, doesn’t that cover it?
Only if it is set up correctly to align with the level you require. More often than not, if you need an audit then chances are it won’t be up to scratch. Luckily for you we are here to assist with that and can license and configure it to the requirements you need.
Can you help with the insurance paperwork?
Yes. We’ll work through the security questions with you and make sure your answers match what’s actually in place.
Need an Essential Eight rating, or just want to know where you stand?
Have a chat with a local team that’ll explain it without the jargon.
Talk to our teamWant a broader look at your security? See our Cyber Risk AssessmentLooking for the most honest IT support on the Northern Beaches?
Tell us a bit about your business and we’ll come back with a plan, usually within one business day. No pressure, no jargon.
- 0413 692 829
- Northern Beaches · Sydney-wide & remote support Australia-wide
- Mon–Fri · 8:30am–5:30pm