Every year, the number of cyber attacks on Australian organisations grows. These attacks can result in losses of money, time and effort, which is why it’s so important to implement proactive strategies to combat adversaries. In this blog post, we’ll take a look at some of the most effective proactive strategies for combating cyber attacks.
The Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC) recently released a list of eight essential mitigation strategies to effectively secure data against adversaries. The essential eight mitigation strategies for protection from cybersecurity attacks are the baseline for all Australian organisations to follow and provide a framework for organisations to adopt and mature over time.
These strategies aim to make it much harder for adversaries to compromise systems within an organisation of any size. ACSC states that proactively implementing the essential eight can be a cost-effective approach rather than responding to a possibly large scale security incident.
The Australian Signals Directorate (ASD) created the Essential 8 Framework. It is based on the original Top-37 and provides a prioritised list of baseline security controls that businesses can use to protect and improve their cybersecurity. According to ASD, these eight controls alone have the potential to prevent up to 85 percent of cyberattacks.
Here is a rundown of the essential eight mitigation strategies to protect Australian organisations against cyber crimes.
To prevent all non-approved applications (including malicious code) from executing.
To remediate known security vulnerabilities in applications that could be used to execute malicious code.
Configure Microsoft Office Macro Settings
To block untrusted macros that could be used to deliver and execute malicious code on systems.
To protect against vulnerable functionality such as flash, ads and Java which are popular ways adversaries deliver and execute malicious code.
To remediate known security vulnerabilities in applications that could be used to execute malicious code.
Restrict Administrative privileges
To limit powerful access to systems which can be used to give adversaries full access to information and systems.
To remediate known vulnerabilities within operating systems which could be used to further the compromise of systems.
To protect against risky activities through the use of stronger user authentication which makes it harder for adversaries to access sensitive information and systems.
To maintain the availability of critical and sensitive data and ensure that information can be accessed following a cybersecurity incident.
The Essential Eight Maturity Levels
Three maturity levels have been defined for each mitigation strategy to assist organisations in determining the maturity of their implementation of the Essential 8.
The maturity levels are defined as:
Organisations should start by implementing the Essential 8 cyber security controls rather than following a specific cyber security framework. These eight key cyber security controls will help your organisation stay cyber resilient and protect your data, systems and services from cyber threats.
A realistic approach to protecting your business is to not stop with the Essential 8; instead, you should regularly review your systems and strengthen them against cyber attacks.
We offer a comprehensive Essential Eight Audit Service which evaluates your current cybersecurity mitigation activities and provides practical and actionable advice on how your organisation can effectively implement the essential eight strategies.
Reach out today to see how we can protect your systems from cybersecurity attacks. Send us an email to cybersecurity@davichi.com.au or give us a phone call on 07 3124 6059.
If you haven’t already done so, have a read of our article regarding the importance of cyber insurance by following this link.
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Davichi Managed IT and Cyber Security specialises in providing small to medium businesses with a complete technology service. We work closely with you to design, build and manage a first-class IT system that gives you the flexibility to respond and adapt in today’s ever-changing corporate environment.
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