In this executive briefing, Ben Love of Grassroots IT outlines the essential eight cybersecurity strategies that organizations should implement to protect themselves. Ben explains that the essential eight model was developed by the Australian Cyber Security Centre to help mitigate cyber incidents. Implementing these strategies is important because cybersecurity is a board-level responsibility, the costs of a breach can be severe, and supply chain partners are requiring compliance.
The eight strategies are: application control, application patching, limiting Microsoft Office macros, user application hardening, restricting admin privileges, OS patching, multifactor authentication (MFA), and backups. Ben then discusses how organizations can assess their maturity in implementing these, with level 1 blocking opportunistic attackers, level 2 more advanced threats, and level 3 focused persistent threats.
When implementing these, consider user resistance, costs, and start with getting all eight to level 1 before advancing further. The quality of evidence you gather also matters. Testing configurations is better evidence than just having a written policy. In summary, the essential eight model developed by Australian government experts provides an actionable checklist for organizations to improve their cybersecurity.
Key points:
- Essential eight cyber strategies help mitigate incidents
- Implementing them is a board responsibility with high costs
- Strategies cover access control, patching, MFA, backups
- Organizations can assess maturity in implementing them
- Quality testing provides the best evidence of effectiveness
#EssentialEight #Cybersecurity #MitigationStrategies
00:00:01 - Introduction
00:00:01 - What is the essential eight cybersecurity model?
00:05:47 - Why the essential eight matters
00:13:37 - The eight mitigation strategies
00:13:58 - Maturity model overview
00:18:43 - Level one, two and three adversaries
00:21:31 - Implementation guidance
00:24:51 - Implementing maturity levels
00:26:16 - Assessing evidence quality
