Successful cyber attacks bring your business to a standstill, and as they grow more sophisticated the likelihood of falling victim increases. Recovering from an attack is the last thing you want on your daily to-do list – and with devastating consequences including financial loss and reputational damage it will stay there for a while.
The good news? There are proactive measures you can take to reduce your risk and protect your business – including implementing the Australian Cyber Security Centre’s Essential Eight framework.
At Perth Support, our friendly team is passionate about enhancing the cyber security defences of local businesses. Today we’re helping you to stay informed by breaking down the Essential Eight, the process, and how our team can help. Ready to support peace of mind and focus on running your business rather than cyber threats? Let’s get started!
What is the Essential Eight Framework?
The Essential Eight framework covers eight mitigation strategies that build your business’ defences against a range of cyber security threats. It should be treated as a baseline, with additional measures applied as needed to fortify your defences. So, what do these strategies look like?
- Patch applications
- Patch operating systems
- Multi-factor authentication
- Restrict administrative privileges
- Application control
- Restrict Microsoft Office macros
- User application hardening
- Regular backups
These strategies can help safeguard against common threats targeting businesses today including ransomware, phishing, business email compromise, and malicious insiders. The implementation of these strategies is supported by the Essential Eight maturity model – let’s take a closer look at this below.
What is the Essential Eight Maturity Model?
This model was originally published in 2017, and is updated on an ongoing basis to ensure it remains practical and relevant to the changing threat landscape. It guides businesses through the application of the Essential Eight framework, and details four maturity levels. This includes:
- Maturity Level Zero – This base level is a starting point, and applies to businesses with weaknesses in their cyber security defences.
- Maturity Level One – This level focuses on building defences against cyber criminals who aim to exploit common weaknesses rather than organising strategic, targeted attacks.
- Maturity Level Two – This level builds defences against cyber criminals who use better tools and have invested more time into their attacks.
- Maturity Level Three – The uppermost level, Level Three improves protection in the face of cyber criminals who use sophisticated tools and techniques, and concentrate on specific targets.
The first step of the process is selecting your target maturity level. Once this is done, you should aim to attain the same maturity level across each strategy, and progressively achieve levels to reach your goal.
Why Should You Implement the Essential Eight?
Implementing this cyber security framework is essential to help your business prevent common threats, support business continuity, and safeguard your reputation. These measures ensure you can invest time, money, and resources into running and growing your business rather than recovering from a devastating cyber attack.
According to the Australian Signals Directorate’s Annual Cyber Threat Report, in FY2023-2024 the average cost of an attack was $49,600 for small businesses, $62,800 for medium businesses, and $63,600 for large businesses. While significant, these numbers might not reflect the ongoing costs that an attack and subsequent recovery can cause, including the long term effects of reputational damage.
How Perth Support Can Help
We’re serious about championing cyber security, and treat it as a priority for every business we work with. Perth Support is proud to have a qualified cyber security Assessor on staff, ensuring top-tier security services for our clients. Our expert specialises in Essential Eight and is equipped to perform comprehensive assessments, identifying vulnerabilities and implementing robust solutions to protect your business from cyber threats. With Perth Support, clients can trust in our commitment to safeguarding their digital assets. We get that compliance can be confusing, so we’re here to guide and simplify the process.
Alongside top-quality cyber security services, we pride ourselves on responsiveness, reliability, and efficiency so you’re always supported with all things IT. If you want to learn more, or to chat about your Essential Eight journey, get in touch with our friendly team today here. We’re looking forward to learning about your business and supporting cyber resilience!
