Essential Eight Quick Guide

Introducing our “Essential Eight Quick Guide”: Crafted by the Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC), the Essential Eight framework offers a comprehensive set of mitigation strategies, tailored to bolster organizations against cyber threats. Engineered as a foundational defence, these strategies are adept at thwarting a spectrum of cyber-attacks.

1. Keep Applications Patched

Continuously apply updates and security patches provided by software vendors to ensure that all software applications are consistently up to date. This proactive approach actively addresses known vulnerabilities within the software, thereby mitigating the risk of exploitation by cyber attackers. Regular patch management is essential for maintaining a robust security posture, as it closes potential entry points that attackers could exploit to gain unauthorized access or compromise systems.

2. Patch Operating Systems

Regularly apply security patches provided by the operating system vendor to keep all operating systems (e.g., Windows, Linux) up to date. Actively addressing known vulnerabilities within operating systems reduces the risk of exploitation by cyber attackers. This proactive approach strengthens the security posture of your organization’s infrastructure, safeguarding against potential security breaches and ensuring the integrity and availability of critical systems and data.

3. Multi-factor Authentication

Actively enforce the use of multi-factor authentication for accessing sensitive systems and data. MFA adds an extra layer of security by requiring users to provide additional authentication factors beyond just a password. By actively implementing MFA, you significantly reduce the risk of unauthorized access, even in the event of compromised credentials. This proactive security measure enhances access control and strengthens overall authentication mechanisms, reducing the likelihood of successful cyber attacks.

4. Restrict Administrative Privileges

Actively limit administrative privileges to only those users who require them for their specific job roles. Implement robust password policies for administrative accounts and consider implementing multi-factor authentication for added security. By actively restricting administrative privileges, you minimize the potential impact of a compromised account and significantly reduce the risk of unauthorized access or malicious activities. This proactive measure enhances overall access control, ensuring that only authorized personnel can perform administrative tasks within your organization’s systems.

5. Application Control

Actively create a list of approved applications and enforce a policy where only these applications are permitted to run on your systems. By doing so, you actively prevent unauthorized or malicious software from executing, significantly reducing the risk of malware infections. Application whitelisting serves as a proactive defence mechanism against potential cyber threats, ensuring that only trusted software can operate within your organization’s environment.

6. Restrict Microsoft Macros

Take active steps to adjust Microsoft Office macro settings, disabling macros from running in potentially risky circumstances such as when opening files from the internet or email attachments. By actively managing macro settings, you reduce the risk of macro-based malware infections infiltrating your systems. This preventive measure actively safeguards against a common attack vector utilized by cybercriminals, enhancing the overall security posture of your organization’s Office environment.

7. User Application Hardening

Proactively configure web browsers and email clients to block or restrict potentially harmful content, such as JavaScript, Flash, and advertisements. Additionally, disable unnecessary features and plugins to minimize the attack surface. By actively hardening user applications, you decrease the likelihood of successful exploitation by cyber attackers. This proactive approach strengthens the security posture of user-facing applications, mitigating the risk of web-based attacks and malicious content delivered via email.

8. Regular Backup

Actively establish a regular backup routine for important data and ensure that backups are stored securely. Regularly test backups to verify their integrity and ability to be successfully restored in the event of data loss or a ransomware attack. By actively backing up important data, you mitigate the impact of potential data loss incidents and facilitate timely recovery efforts. This proactive approach ensures business continuity and resilience against data-related threats, safeguarding critical information assets and minimizing potential disruptions to operations.

Further information on Essential Eight Quick Guide

As this “Essential Eight Quick Guide” is only an overview of Essential Eight Strategy, further documentation and methods of doing an essential eight assessment is provided by the Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC).