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Category Archives: Essential Eight

Cybersecurity, Essential Eight, Strategy, Technology

Why you should implement Application Control within your business

Why you should implement Application Control within your business

In today’s digital world, businesses of all sizes are increasingly reliant on software applications to streamline their operations, enhance productivity and interact with customers. This dependence on so many applications, however, also exposes organisations to various Cyber Security risks.

To help mitigate these risks, a powerful tool to protect businesses from cyber threats is application control. This provides direct control over the applications running on an organisation’s networks.

What is Application Control?

Application Control is only allowing approved applications to run on systems to prevent malicious software from running. Unlike traditional antivirus software which focuses on identifying and blocking malware, application control software takes a proactive approach by explicitly only allowing authorised applications to run. By enforcing strict control policies, this software ensures that only approved applications can be executed, reducing the possibility of attacks and minimising the risk of unauthorised access, data breaches and malware infections.

Essential Eight is a list of eight security strategies that the Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC) believes will provide a strong foundation for Cyber Security, and the framework is highly recommended by the government for businesses to implement. The first measure listed in Essential Eight is application control, showing just how effective it can be in protecting your business from cyberattacks. Keep in mind, though, that application control should not be the only Essential Eight strategy your business implements, and along those lines, Essential Eight should not be used in isolation to protect your organisation.

Key Benefits for Businesses

Preventing Unauthorised Software

One of the primary advantages of application control is its ability to prevent unauthorised software from being installed and used. By creating whitelists of approved applications, businesses can restrict employees from running potentially harmful or unverified software. This proactive approach reduced the risk of introducing malware or malicious code into the network, safeguarding sensitive data and intellectual property.

Minimising Vulnerabilities

Cybercriminals often exploit vulnerabilities in outdated or unpatched applications to gain unauthorised access to systems. Application control software can help businesses by monitoring and managing application versions and updates. By ensuring that all applications are up to date, businesses can reduce the likelihood of successful attacks through known vulnerabilities.

Enhancing Compliance

In highly regulated industries, like finance and healthcare, compliance with industry standards and data protection regulation is critical. Application control helps businesses meet these requirements by enforcing security policies and restricting the use of non-compliant applications. By maintaining a secure and compliant software environment, organisations can avoid hefty fines, legal implications and reputational damage.

Streamlining Incident Response

In the event of a security incident or breach, application control plays a vital role in incident response. By controlling the software environment, organisations can quickly identify and isolate compromised applications, limiting the impact of the incident and preventing its movement within the network. The ability to enforce restrictions and block unauthorised applications aids in containing the breach and restoring normal operations promptly.

Challenges of Implementing Application Control

While application control software offers several benefits for enhancing Cyber Security, there are some potential inconveniences associated with its implementation. It is important to consider these factors to ensure that businesses can strike a balance between security and operational efficiency.

Administrative Burden: Implementing application control software requires significant effort and ongoing maintenance. Creating and managing whitelists of approved applications can be time-consuming, especially for large organisations with a wide range of software dependencies. Regular updates and adjustments to application control policies may also require extensive coordination among IT teams and various business departments.

Compatibility and Integration Challenges: The software used for application control must be compatible with the diverse range of applications used within an organisation. Ensuring seamless integration with existing systems and workflows can be complex, particularly when dealing with legacy applications or custom-built software. Compatibility issues may require additional configuration or customisation, leading to delays and potential disruptions.

False Positives and False Negatives: Application control software relies on accurate identification and classification of applications to determine their status (allowed or blocked). However, false positives (legitimate applications mistakenly identified as unauthorised) and false negatives (potentially malicious applications not identified) can occur. False positives can disrupt operations, while false negatives may lead to security breaches. Regular monitoring and fine-tuning of application control policies are necessary to minimise these issues.

User Experience and Productivity Impact: Overly restrictive application control policies can result in reduced user productivity and frustration. If legitimate applications are mistakenly blocked or unauthorised applications are allowed to run, employees may encounter obstacles in performing their tasks efficiently. Striking a balance between security controls and user experience is crucial to maintain productivity while ensuring a secure security posture.

Impact on Innovation and Flexibility: Application control may sometimes get in the way of trialling new or emerging technologies within an organisation. Strict control policies may limit the ability to experiment with new applications or tools, potentially hindering innovation and agility.

Increased Dependency on Updates and Patching: Application control software relies on accurate information about application versions and updates to maintain security. Businesses need to stay vigilant in ensuring that they promptly apply patches and updates to both the application control software itself and the applications it monitors. Not doing this can introduce vulnerabilities or can prevent the control measures from functioning properly.

Sandboxing

One of the biggest concerns with application control is the need to test any updates or new applications through what is called, sandboxing, before it can be installed on the organisation’s systems. This generally takes about 24 to 48 hours, but you might find that some enterprise organisations, like banks, sandbox for up to a month to test for any threats before verifying the application.

Sandboxing each new application and update before using them in a business environment, while inconvenient for both staff and your managed service provider that needs to do this, is a critical practice that offers several benefits in terms of security, stability and risk mitigation.

Security Testing: Sandboxing allows you to test applications and updates in a controlled environment before installing them on your production systems. By isolating the software in a sandbox, you can observe its behaviour for potential security risks without putting your network and sensitive data at immediate risk. This helps identify and mitigate any vulnerabilities, malware or malicious activities associated with the application or update.

Risk Mitigation: Applications and updates can introduce unforeseen issues or conflicts with existing software or configurations. By sandboxing, you can assess the impact of these changes without jeopardising the stability and performance of your systems. Sandboxing enables you to identify and resolve compatibility issues, system conflicts or unexpected behaviour before implementing the software.

Protection against Malware: Malicious software, such as viruses, ransomware or Trojans, can infiltrate your network through compromised applications or updates. By sandboxing, you can run these potentially malicious software packages in an isolated environment, preventing them from infecting your actual systems.

Testing Application Performance: Sandboxing allows you to assess the performance and resource requirements of applications and updates. By monitoring their behaviour in an isolated environment, you can determine the impact on system resources, such as CPU, memory or disk usage. This evaluation helps you understand the application’s performance characteristics and ensure that it meets your business requirements without negatively impacting your production systems.

Compliance and Regulatory Requirements: Many industries have specific compliance and regulatory requirements that require thorough testing and validation of applications and updates. By sandboxing and evaluating software in a controlled environment, you can ensure that it meets the necessary security and compliance standards before introducing it into your production systems. This helps maintain data privacy, protect sensitive information and adhere to industry regulations.

What is ThreatLocker?

At Pronet, a software we implement within our clients’ systems to whitelist applications is ThreatLocker. It offers advanced features and capabilities to help organisations effectively manage and control the applications running on their networks. As a base, it employs a strong application whitelisting approach, allowing businesses to create a list of approved applications.

It also follows a zero-trust security model, meaning that it treats all applications as potentially untrusted until they are explicitly approved. This approach enhances security by ensuring that every application is thoroughly evaluated and authorised before execution, mitigating the risk of introducing malicious or unauthorised software.

ThreatLocker provides granular control over how applications interact with other areas of your IT systems, such as networks, files, folders and registries. This level of control allows businesses to fine-tune their security policies based on specific requirements. It allows organisations to enforce different access permissions and restrictions for different user groups or departments, enhancing security without impacting productivity.

The software also offers comprehensive reporting and auditing capabilities, providing visibility into application usage and security events. It allows businesses to generate detailed reports on application activities, policy violations and security incidents. ThreatLocker can integrate with other security solutions, such as antivirus software, firewalls and intrusion detection systems, to provide a layered defence strategy. This integration enables organisations to leverage multiple security measures and strengthen their overall Cyber Security framework.

Since ThreatLocker is a software Pronet uses, we know just how powerful it is and therefore, can recommend it.

In an era where cyber threats are a constant concern, businesses must prioritise Cyber Security measures to protect their assets, data and reputation. Application control software serves as a critical component in the overall Cyber Security strategy of businesses by allowing direct control over the software applications running on the network. By preventing unauthorised or potentially malicious applications from running, businesses can significantly reduce the risk of cyberattacks, data breaches and operational disruptions.

Cybersecurity, Essential Eight, MSP, Technology

Why you’re never too small to be hit by a cyberattack

Why you’re never too small to be hit by a cyberattack

Hearing about the recent cyberattacks on large companies like Optus, Medibank, Latitude, Crown and Meriton, it’s easy to think that such attacks only happen to large companies or organisations, but the truth is that cybercriminals are targeting small businesses more than ever before. In fact, small businesses are the target of 43 per cent of cyberattacks, and the frequency of these attacks is only increasing.

Unfortunately, many small business owners have the misconception that they are too small to be a target of cyberattacks. They assume that hackers only go after the ‘big fish’ — this is not the case. The truth is that cybercriminals view small businesses as low-hanging fruit because they typically have fewer resources and less sophisticated Cyber Security measures in place.

Another common misconception is that only businesses that handle sensitive information such as credit card details or personal information are at risk of being targeted. While it is true that businesses that handle sensitive information are a prime target, cybercriminals can attack any type of business and can cause significant damage to a company’s reputation, finances and operations. Your business might be just one stage of a supply chain and if yours or another within that chain becomes compromised, the rest are at risk of being affected.

Who could be a threat to your business?

Threats can come from anywhere, not just random internet criminals mass spamming email addresses. Criminals come in all shapes and sizes, such as an individual or even an organisation that looks and runs as a legitimate business. Threats can come from:

  • Cybercriminals: those who are illegally trying to access your hardware, software and data, to disrupt your business or to obtain information or money.
  • Current clients: disgruntled clients could try to compromise your information.
  • Competitors: business competitors could try to gain access to your clients or data to gain an advantage over your business.
  • Current or former employees: this could be through an accidental or intentional compromise of your business’ information.

How can an SME become a target of a cyberattack?

Small and medium-sized businesses can fall victim to various types of cyberattacks. This could be through theft or unauthorised access of your company’s hardware, computers and mobile devices, through infecting devices with malware like viruses, ransomware and spyware, by attacking your tech or website, by attacking third-party systems or companies you do business with or by sending socially engineered phishing emails and texts containing malware. These attacks can lead to data breaches, financial losses, business disruption and damage to a company’s reputation.

While at the outset, your business might not be directly targeted as your data is not seen as valuable as another’s, your business is still going to be hit by indirect cyberattacks. These predominantly come in the form of phishing emails, where scammers send an email masquerading as a legitimate and reputable company with the aim of getting you to click a malware link or insert your personal or login details. According to Astra, 92 per cent of Australian organisations suffered a successful phishing attack in 2022, showing a 53 per cent increase from 2021. If your staff are unaware of what these look like, no matter how personalised they are for your business, your business will get infiltrated and voila, you’ve just been hit by a cyberattack.

According to a study by IBM, the main cause of 95 per cent of Cyber Security breaches is human error. Human error in a security context means unintentional actions, or lack of action, by employees that cause, spread or allow a security breach to occur. This could be something as simple as accidentally clicking a link that downloads and installs malware or failing to use a strong password. With work environments becoming more nuanced, such as working from home, in multiple offices or needing to use a diverse range of applications to complete day-to-day tasks, it can be difficult to keep up with each user’s activities, the number of usernames and passwords needing to be remembered and all the inconvenient security measures that the company puts in place, like two-factor authentication.

While people make mistakes, this presents a simple starting point for businesses to protect themselves from cyberattacks: train employees on IT risks and how to recognise scams and phishing schemes.

The consequences of a cyberattack can be devastating for small businesses. Many small businesses lack the resources to protect their websites, accounts and networks or to recover from a cyberattack, and as a result, many of them go out of business within six months of the attack.

How can I protect my business from cyberattacks?

Small businesses need to take Cyber Security seriously and implement measures to protect themselves against cyberattacks. These measures can include installing firewalls, antivirus software and security patches, implementing strong password policies, providing regular staff training and conducting regular Cyber Security risk assessments.

We have many other posts about how to protect your company such as how to restrict administrative privileges (here) and by conducting a Cyber Security risk assessment (here) but for now, here are some simple ways to protect your company:

  • As mentioned, train employees on IT risks. This creates a Cyber Security culture within your business that encourages discussion around security and allows staff to ask questions if they ever are unsure.
  • Reduce opportunities for human error. Implement privilege control so that employees only have access to the data and software they need to perform their roles.
  • Create a clear policy on technology, such as employees using devices on company networks and having strong passwords, and then ensure these are being followed.
  • Have someone in charge of IT and security. If you’re heavily reliant on technology, it might be best to work with a managed service provider (MSP) to proactively monitor your systems and remove threats as they occur. They also ensure everything is backed up and can help your business by recommending IT systems that suit your unique business as well as grow your systems alongside your company growth.
  • Work with your IT service provider to implement the Essential Eight Cyber Security framework that the Australian Government recommends all businesses adopt. 

How an MSP can help with your IT systems

Managed service providers monitor your IT systems to stop threats in their tracks. By handing the responsibility of your systems off to someone else, it allows you as a business owner or decision-maker within your company to get on with the other daily tasks you need to complete. In business, you wear many hats and are often an expert in your field, so it’s time to hire a business that’s an expert in IT systems.

Even better, try to work with an MSP that is also an expert in Cyber Security. Oftentimes, these are two separate businesses, either you working with both an MSP and a Cyber Security company or the MSP working with the Cyber Security company.

At Pronet Technology, we are both. About six years ago, we began to learn more about and specialise in Cyber Security so that we could adequately protect our clients and their systems, as well as our own because a breach on either end could infect the other.

Did you know, according to IBM, the average time to identify and contain a data breach is 280 days? Working with Cyber Security professionals means that threats and data breaches can be detected, contained and fixed promptly and that your systems are constantly monitored. They will implement a range of strategies to protect your business, like testing new software and updates on isolated machines for any potential holes in security before then installing these on your devices as well as informing your business of any security risks and weaknesses in your defences.

No business is too small to be a target of cyberattacks. Small businesses are particularly vulnerable because they often lack the resources to implement sophisticated Cyber Security measures. Cyber Security should be taken seriously by all businesses, regardless of their size, to protect themselves against potential cyberattacks and minimise the risk of damage to their reputation, finances and operations. Your business, its customers and your suppliers are too important for you to believe that you’re never going to be hit by a cyberattack because you’re ‘too small’. You must be properly protected and prepared for when an attack happens.

Data Recovery, Essential Eight, MSP, Technology

How often should I back up my data?

How often should I back up my data?

As a business owner or manager, one of your most important responsibilities is protecting your data. Data loss can have a devastating impact on your business, resulting in lost productivity, lost revenue and even lost customers. That’s why backing up your data is so important; think of it like your business’ insurance policy if something goes wrong.

There are a variety of factors you need to think of when creating a backup strategy, such as who manages the backup, whether you back up all your organisation’s data or only the most important, where you store the backup, how often you back up and how you do the backups. These are all important questions to ask, but the first question to answer is why you need to back up your business’ data.

Businesses store magnitudes of data, from customer information, data, bills, bookkeeping, orders, website code and custom programming, and passwords as well as daily work like documents, presentations, spreadsheets, emails and appointments. This all needs to be protected in the event of a system failure, cyberattack or natural disaster.

If you’re unsure about what data your business should be backing up, talk to your IT service provider, otherwise, a data backup should include all data stored within your network, like databases, operating systems, applications, configurations and employee work phones.

But how often should you back up your data? The answer depends on several factors, including the size of your business, the amount of data you generate and the level of risk you are willing to tolerate.

To determine how often you should back up your data, Microsoft has listed a range of questions to ask yourself about your business:

  • How important is the data on your systems?
  • What type of information does the data contain?
  • How often does the data change?
  • How quickly do you need to recover the data?
  • Do you have the equipment to perform backups?
  • Who will be responsible for the backup and recovery plan?
  • What is the best time to schedule backups?
  • Do you need to store backups off-site?

Perhaps the most important of these questions is how often does the data change? Data creation is constant these days as businesses are either creating new content or receiving new data, through emails, consumer data, social and blog posts or documents.

As a business, there are some general guidelines you can follow when it comes to how often to back up data:

Daily Backups: At a minimum, you should back up your data daily. This ensures that you have a recent copy of your data in case of an unexpected outage or disaster. Daily backups are particularly important for businesses that generate a lot of data or rely heavily on technology. A mid-size company might benefit from performing a full backup every 24 hours with an incremental one every 6. Mid-size online retailers should increase this to every 4 hours along with producing transaction logs every hour. Enterprise retailers and large banks might increase to every 3 hours and logs every half-hour. For businesses this large, lost transactions and data are not an option and with the overload of data, a second server is often required. Backing up each day means if something goes wrong, you’re not missing anything too important as you can just go back to the previous day’s backups.

Weekly or Monthly Backups: In addition to daily backups, you may also want to perform weekly or monthly backups. These backups provide an additional layer of protection and can be particularly useful for businesses that generate a lot of data or have a lot of critical information that needs to be protected. Weekly full-scale backups might be fine for smaller organisations that then do incremental backups every day, but this probably won’t suit larger enterprises. A small business might even suit only backing up their files every few days.

Backups can be done manually or automatically. Automatically backing up your systems is an incredibly effective way to go as it saves your IT team time, especially if your IT is done in-house. These days, there are many automatic software options that your business can use if you’re managing your IT systems yourself. If you have an IT service provider, be sure to clarify with your IT service provider how often they back up your data in your pricing plan and whether they charge per GB or for more frequent backups, as well as where they’re storing these backups

Another important consideration is where you store your backups. Storing your backups on-site may provide some protection, but it leaves your data vulnerable to disasters such as fires or floods where you then lose everything. That’s why it’s important to store your backups off-site, either in the cloud or at a remote location. Only storing backups on Google Drive can also be detrimental as, while this allows for rapid backups, you might get locked out of your Google accounts.

It’s a good idea to back up to as many places as possible, like an on-premise hard drive or server, a backup software and a cloud-based backup, so that if one fails, you have others to rely on to quickly reboot your network with minimal data loss. Because while a data backup system is crucial, you also need a data recovery system when you need to use those backups.    

As you can see, the size of your business, and thereby, the amount of data you produce, play a big part in determining how often to back up your data, but one thing is certain, your business must have a backup routine in place to maintain its longevity. You never know when a hardware failure, software corruption or accidental or intentional loss of data might occur. Having the right data backup plan protects businesses and helps them avoid costly damages in the future.

Ultimately, the frequency of your backups will depend on your specific business needs and risk tolerance. Backing up your data regularly is essential for protecting your business and ensuring that you can continue to operate in the event of a disaster. Don’t wait until it’s too late — start backing up your data today.

Cybersecurity, Essential Eight, MSP, Strategy

Which Essential Eight maturity level should my business be at?

Which Essential Eight maturity level should my business be at?

You know what Essential Eight is and that the Australian Government highly recommends implementing it, but does that mean your business must be at the highest maturity level?

As cyberattacks continue to rise in frequency and sophistication, businesses of all sizes must take proactive steps to protect their sensitive information and assets. Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC) has developed the Essential Eight, a set of mitigation strategies that businesses can implement to significantly reduce the risk of a successful cyberattack.

The ACSC has defined four maturity levels to help organisations identify where exactly they’re at when it comes to their Cyber Security. These maturity levels aim to help businesses implement Essential Eight, originally introduced in 2017 and updated in 2023 after the increase in cyberattacks on Australian organisations. However, many business owners may wonder which maturity level they should be at when implementing the Essential Eight.

What are the maturity levels?

Maturity Level Zero: Indicates that your business has significant weaknesses in its overall Cyber Security and would be easy to exploit by attackers. If you’re at this level, any potentially confidential data or the availability of your systems and data are at risk of being compromised.

Maturity Level One: Organisations sitting in this level have some sort of processes to protect themselves from opportunistic attackers looking to infiltrate the masses, rather than individual businesses.

Maturity Level Two: These businesses have reasonable defences in place to defend themselves against cybercriminals specifically targeting their organisation. Criminals attacking these businesses are happy to invest more time and effort into bypassing security controls, such as by using targeted social engineering techniques when using phishing, but are also wary of spending too much time and money trying to compromise their victims. Businesses at this level introduce shorter timelines for action, ensure high-risk activities are logged and start thinking more broadly about potential threats.

Maturity Level Three: This is the highest level a business can be at where businesses are actively mitigating threats from adversaries that are constantly adapting their techniques and who are very focused on targeting specific, high-value organisations. These adversaries exploit any opportunities in weaknesses in the Cyber Security of the organisation and are willing to invest time and effort into understanding the organisation, their security control and their staff to gain access and evade detection.  

What maturity level should my business be at?

Businesses start off being at level zero, but it’s time to understand that this must be changed and you need to increase the Cyber Security strategies in your business.

The first four of the Essential Eight strategies, known as the baseline maturity level, are considered to be the minimum requirement for all businesses. The remaining four strategies are part of the advanced maturity level and offer additional protection against cyber threats.

While implementing Essential Eight can help significantly reduce your risk of a cyberattack, it’s important to remember that it’s not a one-size-fits-all solution. Your business may require additional mitigation strategies beyond Essential Eight, and your business must conduct a comprehensive risk assessment to identify any gaps in your security. That is the first step in implementing Essential Eight. Focus on achieving a maturity level that makes sense for your business as the nature of your data might not be as sensitive as another business’ and Maturity Level Three might not correlate to your risk management evaluation.

So, which maturity level should your business be at? It ultimately depends on the size and complexity of your business, as well as the level of risk you are willing to tolerate. However, the baseline maturity level should be the starting point for all businesses, regardless of size or industry.

The baseline strategies include:

  • Application control: This involves only allowing approved applications to run on your systems, which can help prevent malware and other malicious software from executing.
  • Patching applications: Regularly updating applications with the latest security patches can help prevent cyber attackers from exploiting vulnerabilities in your systems.
  • Patching operating systems: Like patching applications, regularly updating your operating systems with the latest security patches can help prevent cyber attackers from exploiting vulnerabilities.
  • Restricting administrative privileges: Limiting the number of people who have administrative access to your systems can help reduce the risk of a successful cyberattack.
  • Configure Microsoft Office macro settings: Cybercriminals often use Microsoft Office macros to deliver malware, so configuring the macro settings in Microsoft Office can help your business prevent this type of attack.

Once this level has been achieved, for businesses with higher risk levels, implementing the advanced maturity level strategies can provide additional protection. These strategies include:

  • Multi-factor authentication: Requiring more than one form of authentication, such as a password and a security token, can help prevent unauthorised access to your systems.
  • User application hardening: Configuring user applications to prevent malicious content from executing can help reduce the risk of a successful cyberattack.
  • Daily backups: Regularly backing up your data can help ensure that you can recover quickly in the event of a successful cyberattack.
  • Incident response: Developing and implementing an incident response plan can help minimise the impact of a successful cyberattack on your business.

Each mitigation strategy needs to be lifted to a higher level until the target maturity level is achieved as your business’ overall maturity is based on the lowest score of any of the strategies. This will not change unless all eight mitigation strategies are lifted to the specific target level. In the original iteration of Essential Eight, it aimed for all organisations to reach Maturity Level Three, but with the latest release, it aims for organisations to reach a homogenous maturity level across the strategies before then moving up to the next level.

Improving your business’ Cyber Security strategies can be an expensive process and achieving any maturity level of the Essential Eight strategies requires time. Start with the baseline, then work your way up to help reduce the costs in the beginning. While it can be a slow process, your business must ensure it’s beginning to improve its maturity level as cyberattacks become increasingly common, especially so among small to medium-sized businesses. What’s more, there’s a high chance that Essential Eight will be mandated in the near future for some, if not all, industries due to just how common these cyberattacks are occurring.

In summary, all businesses should start with the baseline maturity level of Essential Eight, regardless of size or industry. From there, businesses with higher risk levels may need to implement advanced maturity-level strategies for additional protection. It’s important to conduct a comprehensive risk assessment to identify any additional mitigation strategies that may be necessary for your business.

Cybersecurity, Essential Eight, Strategy

Does my business need to implement every aspect of Essential Eight?

Does my business need to implement every aspect of Essential Eight?

Essential Eight aims to get organisations to achieve a varied Cyber Security framework that spans the eight strategies so that they can improve their maturity of whichever strategy they are lagging. It’s an initiative that helps businesses understand the importance of Cyber Security within their organisation and gives them a framework on how to improve.

As the strategies are varied and quite specific, a business will not reach the maturity level it needs without any dedicated effort. We understand it can be a struggle to navigate the challenges of Cyber Security, especially since the higher the maturity level you reach, the more costs involved and the inconvenience it can be on yourself and your staff. It’s necessary though, as any cyberattack that occurs can be detrimental to your business, including unproductive staff, downtime, data breaches, ransom attacks, lost customer trust and reputation, high expenses plus any legal fees that may occur, and potentially could even see the closure of your company.

Does my business need to implement all eight strategies?

If you’re unsure what the eight strategies are, read this article here to learn.

Originally when Essential Eight was introduced by the Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC), now part of the Australian Signals Directorate (ADS), it suggested all organisations should aim to reach Maturity Level three. Businesses had to implement only four of the strategies — application control, patch applications, restrict administrative privileges and configure Microsoft Office macro settings — with the remainder being optional, and they were also able to self-assess their compliance.

With the updated version released in 2023, it aims for businesses to reach the same maturity level across the strategies before moving up to the next. What this means is that each of the eight strategies needs to be improved and lifted to your needed level. If seven of the strategies are at Level Two and one is at Level One, then your organisation’s Maturity Level is One. The newer version also introduces audits to check proper compliance.

For that reason, yes, your business needs to implement every strategy in Essential Eight. It’s the target level that determines how intensely you then implement these strategies.

Your business may not need to reach Level Three. This will be determined in your initial risk audit and assessments that you complete alongside a Cyber Security audit. Business owners and stakeholders must understand the risks that your business faces, as well as the costs associated with these and the consequences if they happen.

Is Essential Eight enough to protect my business?

Other than Essential Eight, your business should also have other Cyber Security practices in effect, including proactive monitoring of your networks and devices for malicious activity and regularly testing data recovery solutions so that when a cyberattack occurs, you can get your business back up and running. Essential Eight also doesn’t approach the task of the initial risk assessment that your business must undergo before implementing any Cyber Security strategy.

Essential Eight is simply a starting point for businesses to protect their digital assets. At current, the framework is about to become compulsory for all non-corporate Commonwealth Entities (NCCEs) so that Australia conducts business securely in the future to protect the country and its citizens. Now that so much of our lives and information is online, action needs to take place to protect this information. The government will be auditing NCCEs for compliance and, as part of their contracts, the NCCEs may require businesses they work with to also comply, meaning businesses may lose opportunities if they do not comply.

The framework is also highly recommended by the Australian Government for all other businesses, but we believe this will change soon to become mandated. Cyber Security attacks are growing, both in number and complexity. Criminals are using social engineering to trick staff into believing they are legitimate actors which then leads to disaster for businesses. Your business needs to aim to decrease as many of these opportunities, plus other complex threats, from reaching your staff, which Essential Eight can help achieve.

The ACSC themselves mention that:

“While no single mitigation strategy is guaranteed to prevent Cyber Security incidents, organisations are recommended to implement eight essential mitigation strategies as a baseline. This baseline, known as the essential eight, makes it much harder for adversaries to compromise systems.”

What now?

Implementing Essential Eight is something we, as an MSP specialising in Cyber Security, have been working with our clients to do and is something we do with every new client we take on board. Cyber Security can ruin businesses, so it’s something that must be applied.

The maturity level your business requires depends on your business and circumstances, so during the assessment, make sure to ask questions like ‘What is the risk of an attack’ and ‘What does my business have to lose.’ Once you’ve determined the level, it’s then time to achieve this through implementation, reviewing and monitoring.

If you’re unsure where to go from here, we can help you along the journey. In addition, Pronet Technology can also help with broader and stronger Cyber Security strategies and offer services with advanced threat protection and detection.

Contact Pronet Technology today to learn how prepared your business is for Essential Eight and how we can improve your Cyber Security.

Cybersecurity, Essential Eight, MSP, Technology

Essential Eight and why your business needs to Integrate Cyber Security

Essential Eight and why your business needs to Integrate Cyber Security

In today’s world, IT systems are an essential part of any organisation. They help in improving efficiency, communication and productivity. However, with the increasing use of technology, the risks associated with IT systems have also increased.

You must know what Essential Eight is if you’re an Australian organisation. It’s a cyber self-assessment security maturity tool to help organisations reduce Cyber Security incidents caused by cyber threats

The government currently recommends that organisations implement the eight essential mitigations as a baseline but we believe this will change in the future to be mandated so it is something we advise our clients and prospects to implement.

Developed by the Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC) to protect Microsoft Windows-based internet-connected networks, the framework has four maturity levels for each business’ risk category.

  • Level Zero: not aligned with strategic objectives.
  • Level One: partially aligned with the objectives.
  • Level Two: mostly aligned with the mitigation strategy objectives.
  • Level Three: fully aligned with objectives.

The levels depend on your business’ risk status and data sensitivity. Level One businesses, for example, are not commonly targeted specifically, so they just receive the typical mass scam emails. Level Two has the potential to be targeted but criminals will often move on if they find the security systems to be too hard to breach. Level Three are where attackers primarily focus as they have high dollar value data, such as banks and telecommunication companies.

Why should your business measure against Essential Eight?

Essentially, Essential Eight is all about Cyber Security and can be seen as a baseline for businesses to measure their maturity against, but it should be just one part of a wider framework that you should have in place. Cyber threats are constantly evolving, so businesses need to adapt to disruptions caused by Cyber Security incidents so that they can maintain business operations. This includes detecting, managing and recovering from incidents. We have other articles on our blog relating to these, so please read those to understand what your business should be doing to protect itself.

By measuring your business against the framework, your business can increase its knowledge of Cyber Security in business and identify company risks and how to control them. It allows your business to create a roadmap going forward that you can tick off to know that your company is becoming secure, and it gives you something to assess your service provider with to ensure they are integrating the Cyber Security processes within your business.

Limitations of Essential Eight

As mentioned, Essential Eight should not be used in isolation to protect your organisation. It’s not a fully-fledged Cyber Security framework and will not protect you from ever having cyber threats. For example, if you’re at Maturity level Three, this will not stop adversaries with the time, money and effort to compromise your business.

The Essential Eight is currently just a loose framework for your business to get started with implementing Cyber Security strategies to protect your businesses. When data leaks can cause your business to be in breach of laws such as The Privacy Act, you need to ensure that you are adequately covered.

The framework is also primarily designed for Microsoft Windows-based businesses, which represent the majority of public sector organisations’ corporate environments, hence why it was introduced by the government. So, while it’s not specifically designed for other operating systems like Mac, Cloud, Operational Technology (OT) or Linux, you can still use it to support your organisation’s Cyber Security development.

So, what are the Essential Eight strategies?

The Essential Eight strategies are designed to address the most common types of cyberattacks that businesses face. They are practical, actionable and cost-effective. Here’s a brief overview of each of the Essential Eight strategies:

  1. Application control: This strategy involves creating a list of approved applications that can be executed on a system. By doing this, organisations can prevent malicious software from running on their systems.
  2. Patch applications: Regularly patching applications can help businesses fix vulnerabilities in their software. This reduces the likelihood of cyberattacks that exploit these vulnerabilities.
  3. Configure Microsoft Office macro settings: Cybercriminals often use Microsoft Office macros to deliver malware. Configuring the macro settings in Microsoft Office can help SMEs prevent this type of attack.
  4. User application hardening: Blocks or removes common software used to download or run malicious software and prevents malicious software from running on business’ networks.
  5. Restrict administrative privileges: Limiting administrative privileges can help businesses prevent malicious actors from gaining access to critical systems.
  6. Patch operating systems: Similarly, regularly patching operating systems can help organizations fix vulnerabilities in the underlying software. This reduces the likelihood of cyberattacks that exploit these vulnerabilities.
  7. Multi-factor authentication: Using multi-factor authentication can help organisations prevent unauthorised access to their systems. It involves requiring two or more forms of authentication before granting access.
  8. Daily backups: Regularly backing up data can help businesses recover from cyberattacks. In the event of a ransomware attack, for example, businesses can restore their data from a backup rather than paying the ransom.

While you might not understand the technical processes of each of the Essential Eight, your IT service provider should be implementing these strategies to help your organisation protect itself against cyber threats. Talk with your MSP to see how and if they’re implementing these into your business.

Does my business need to implement Essential Eight?

While it is not mandated to do so, the framework is highly recommended by the government for Australian businesses to follow. At Pronet Technology, we recommend your company start integrating the framework as soon as possible. Even though we’re an MSP, over the last five so years, we’ve been doing all we can to learn more about and specialise in Cyber Security as we believe it plays an integral role in the longevity of businesses.

While ACSC recommends all businesses be at maturity level 3, each organisation’s Cyber Security level depends on its business need, size and complexity. As a business, conduct a risk assessment alongside your IT service provider to determine, analyse and prioritise the gaps in your business that can be strengthened and then act on those.

There are always going to be some challenges to improving Cyber Security within your business. It could be that you lack the staff and funding or that you don’t have the knowledge to successfully implement Cyber Security. You could have other organisational priorities or believe ad-hoc security is enough. Some people in the business might not yet be on board or you just don’t know how to improve. Cyber Security runs throughout the business so it’s something that everyone needs to understand and come on board with.

Most companies these days outsource their IT systems to service providers. Make sure you know the cyber maturity of your MSP in relation to Essential Eight so that you can build a strong working relationship with the MSP to ensure your business is protected.

By implementing these strategies, SMEs can significantly reduce their risk of cyberattacks. Essential Eight is not a silver bullet, but it’s a great starting point for any organisation looking to improve its Cyber Security posture. It’s important to note that Cyber Security is an ongoing process, and businesses should continually assess and improve their security measures.

Cybersecurity, Essential Eight, IT Support

Who is a Cyber Security Risk Assessment for?

Who is a Cyber Security Risk Assessment for?

As we move towards a more digitised world, the importance of Cyber Security continues to increase. Cyberattacks have become more frequent, sophisticated and damaging over the years. It’s essential to ensure the safety and security of your organisation’s information and technology assets. One of the best ways to achieve this is by conducting a Cyber Security Risk Assessment.

A Cyber Security Risk Assessment is a process of identifying, analysing and evaluating potential risks and vulnerabilities in an organisation’s digital environment. It involves evaluating the security measures in place and identifying any weaknesses that can lead to data breaches, cyberattacks or other security incidents. The ultimate goal of a Cyber Security Risk Assessment is to develop a comprehensive security plan that minimises risks and protects an organisation’s digital assets.

Why is a Cyber Security Risk Assessment important?

The world is witnessing a surge in cybercrime activities. Hackers and cybercriminals are always looking for ways to infiltrate an organisation’s digital environment and exploit vulnerabilities. A Cyber Security Risk Assessment helps organisations identify potential risks and vulnerabilities in their digital environment, enabling them to take proactive measures to mitigate such risks.

A Risk Assessment also helps organisations to comply with various regulatory requirements such as The Privacy Act 1988. Compliance with such regulations is crucial, as non-compliance can lead to hefty fines, legal liabilities and reputational damage.

Who is a Cyber Security Risk Assessment for?

A Cyber Security Risk Assessment is for everyone, irrespective of the size or nature of the organisation. Any organisation that stores, processes or interacts with information over the internet is at risk of cyberattacks. Therefore, every organisation needs to conduct a Risk Assessment to identify potential risks and vulnerabilities and develop a comprehensive security plan.

Small and Medium-sized businesses (SMBs)

Small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) often assume that they are not at risk of cyberattacks because they are small or don’t have much valuable information. However, this is not true. Hackers often target SMBs because they have weaker security measures in place, making them easy targets. Another fact that SMBs should be aware of is that most cyberattacks are non-targeted. It is likened to a fisherman casting a wider net to catch as many fish as possible instead of spending the time and resources to catch the ideal fish. Also, some criminals would prefer not to target high-profile companies for fear of being the centre of an investigation by government enforcement agencies like the Australian Federal Police. A Cyber Security Risk Assessment can help SMBs identify potential risks and vulnerabilities and take proactive measures to mitigate such risks.

Enterprises

Enterprises often have a complex digital environment, making it challenging to identify potential risks and vulnerabilities. A Cyber Security Risk Assessment can help enterprises assess their security posture and identify potential risks and vulnerabilities across their entire digital environment.

Government Agencies

Government agencies often store sensitive information such as citizens’ personal information, national security secrets and confidential data. A Cyber Security Risk Assessment can help identify potential risks and vulnerabilities in government agencies’ digital environment, enabling them to take proactive measures to protect sensitive information.

Healthcare Industry

The healthcare industry is one of the most targeted industries by cybercriminals. Electronic Health Records (EHR) and other digital healthcare information are extremely valuable to hackers. A Cyber Security Risk Assessment can help healthcare organisations identify potential risks and vulnerabilities and take proactive measures to secure their digital environment.

How is a Cyber Security Risk Assessment conducted?

A Cyber Security Risk Assessment typically involves the following steps:

  1. Scope Definition: Defining the scope of the assessment, including the digital assets to be evaluated, the assessment methodology and the expected outcomes.
  2. Asset Identification: Identifying all the digital assets within the scope of the assessment.
  3. Threat Identification: Identifying all potential threats and vulnerabilities to digital assets.
  4. Risk Analysis: Analysing the likelihood and impact of potential risks and vulnerabilities.
  5. Risk Evaluation: Evaluate the risks and vulnerabilities to determine the most critical ones.
  6. Risk Treatment: Developing and implementing a plan to mitigate identified risks and vulnerabilities.
  7. Risk Monitoring: Continuously monitoring the digital environment to identify any new potential risks and vulnerabilities.

It’s important to note that conducting a Cyber Security Risk Assessment is not a one-time process. The digital environment is continually changing and new threats and vulnerabilities can emerge at any time. Therefore, it’s essential to conduct regular assessments to ensure the digital environment remains secure.

A Cyber Security Risk Assessment is a critical process that every organisation must undertake to protect its digital assets. It helps identify potential risks and vulnerabilities, enabling organisations to take proactive measures to mitigate such risks. It also helps organisations comply with regulatory requirements, minimise legal liabilities and protect their reputation.

No organisation is immune to cyberattacks and the consequences can be devastating. Therefore, it’s essential to conduct regular Cyber Security Risk Assessments to ensure the digital environment remains secure. Don’t wait until it’s too late; conduct a Cyber Security Risk Assessment today and protect your organisation’s digital assets.

FAQs

  • What are the benefits of conducting a Cyber Security Risk Assessment?

Conducting a Cyber Security Risk Assessment helps organisations identify potential risks and vulnerabilities, enabling them to take proactive measures to mitigate such risks. It also helps organisations comply with regulatory requirements, minimise legal liabilities and protect their reputation.

  • What happens if an organisation doesn’t conduct a Cyber Security Risk Assessment?

An organisation that doesn’t conduct a Cyber Security Risk Assessment is at risk of cyberattacks, data breaches, legal liabilities and reputational damage. It can also face hefty fines for non-compliance with regulatory requirements.

  • Can small businesses benefit from conducting a Cyber Security Risk Assessment?

Yes, small businesses can benefit significantly from conducting a Cyber Security Risk Assessment. Hackers often target small businesses because they have weaker security measures in place, making them easy targets. Conducting a Cyber Security Risk Assessment can help small businesses identify potential risks and vulnerabilities and take proactive measures to mitigate such risks.

  • How often should an organisation conduct a Cyber Security Risk Assessment?

An organisation should conduct a Cyber Security Risk Assessment at least once a year or whenever there is a significant change in the digital environment.

  • What are the steps involved in conducting a Cyber Security Risk Assessment?

The steps involved in conducting a Cyber Security Risk Assessment include scope definition, asset identification, threat identification, risk analysis, risk evaluation, risk treatment and risk monitoring.

  • How long does a Cyber Security Risk Assessment take?

The duration of a Cyber Security Risk Assessment depends on the size and complexity of the digital environment being assessed. However, it typically takes anywhere from a few weeks to several months to complete.

Cybersecurity, Essential Eight, MSP, Technology

Using Two-Factor Authentication in your business

Using Two-Factor Authentication in your business

Multi or Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) is an incredibly effective way to prevent cybercriminals from accessing your business’ systems, services or applications. We’re all accustomed to the standard username and password model, but 2FA requires users to present two or more different pieces of evidence when logging into their accounts.

These can be things like a username and password (something you know), authorisation through a multi-factor authentication application (something you have) or a fingerprint (something you are). In an everyday scenario, while PayPass has made it obsolete, except for withdrawing money, when making a purchase, you used to need a bank card (something you have) and a pin (something you know).

While there is some highly advanced new tech that can overcome 2FA, by requiring two factors for authentication, 2FA makes it much more difficult for cybercriminals to gain unauthorised access to sensitive data and systems, even if they have obtained the user’s password through a phishing attack or other means.

Other than 2FA software that your business can use on your network, like Windows Hello, oftentimes, third-party vendors also have an option for this service to be used. Make sure to go into settings to set this up or contact the vendor to ask how.

When should Multi-Factor Authentication be implemented?

As an SME, you may not think that you have valuable data or assets that are worth protecting. However, any business that collects customer data, such as names, addresses and credit card information, is at risk of a data breach. In addition, if your business has any proprietary information or trade secrets, such as manufacturing processes or customer lists, you could be at risk of industrial espionage. Even if you don’t believe your data is worth protecting, the mere risk of a cyberattack interrupting your business operations is worth considering.

Some older, legacy systems may not support multi-factor authentication and even though it adds another step for employees and therefore, an added inconvenience, 2FA must be added to your business’ operations, even more so since it’s one of the Essential Eight Cyber Security strategies. It becomes important when performing work-related activities like remote access solutions, users performing privileged actions and when staff access important data. As mentioned, it provides a way to securely authenticate the user. If the first form of defence is breached, like a PIN (personal identification number), password or passphrase, then the attacker is unable to progress further as they don’t have the second.

Depending on what maturity level of Essential Eight your business is aiming for, how you implement two-factor authentication can differ.

At Maturity Level One, the authentication methods used must not be of the same class — something staff know, something they have or something they are — and one doesn’t have to be a memorised secret. If you’re only now implementing multi-factor authentication and need to be at a higher maturity level, it might be easier to simply use a higher form of 2FA as mentioned below.

At Maturity Level Two, the authentication methods that can be used, and in what combination, are restricted. Some acceptable multi-factor authentication implementations can include something users have (like a single-factor one-time PIN device or a single-factor cryptographic (a way of protecting information and communications through codes) software/device) or something staff have that is unlocked by something they know or are (multi-factor OTP device or multi-factor cryptographic software/device). Biometrics, like fingerprint or retina scanning, are not acceptable at this level. At this level, event logs for multi-factor authentication should also be collected and stored to help with incident response.

At Maturity Level Three, all staff accessing important data must be using multi-factor authentication. The types and combinations of 2FA are restricted, such as through cryptographically verifying what they are authenticating. Cybercriminals try to get around multi-factor authentication by stealing authentication requirements to impersonate staff, so organisations are to use multi-factor authentication solutions that are resistant to phishing, like security keys, smartcards or a Trusted Platform Module. Businesses are not to use push notifications or SMS codes as authentication methods as these are often used by adversaries.

How to Implement Two-Factor Authentication for SMEs

Implementing 2FA may sound complicated, but it is actually a straightforward process. Here are the steps you can take to implement 2FA for your SME:

  1. Choose a 2FA solution: There are many 2FA solutions available, including hardware tokens, mobile apps, and SMS-based solutions. Choose a solution that fits your budget and needs.
  2. Configure your 2FA solution: Once you have chosen a solution, you will need to configure it for your business. This typically involves setting up user accounts and configuring the authentication factors.
  3. Train your employees: It is important to train your employees on how to use the 2FA solution and why it is important. This will help ensure that they understand the process and are more likely to use it consistently.
  4. Test your 2FA solution: Before deploying 2FA to all users, it is important to test the solution to ensure that it is working correctly and does not cause any compatibility issues with your existing systems.
  5. Roll out 2FA to all users: Once you have tested the solution, you can roll it out to all users. This typically involves providing instructions on how to use the solution and ensuring that all users are using it correctly.

To test if these measures are working, try logging on to a system or software that has the authentication set up and see if the request for two or more authentication factors, such as a password or a one-time PIN, is shown. For high levels, watch as an employee that has administrative privileges authenticates to log into a system or software to see if they are required to use multi-factor authentication. Make sure to monitor the log-ins of multiple services, as, for example, a cloud service may have a different implementation of 2FA than an on-premise service. Also, for Level Three, ask staff members to send through lists of the important data repositories in the business’ network as well as screenshots of attempting to log in to these, including the multiple forms of authentication it should be requesting. Ensure event logs of multi-factor authentication are also protected and monitored for signs of compromise and modification.

Some tips

If you’re not aiming for Maturity Level Three, then select a multi-factor authentication solution that impedes less on user functionality. Make sure to also turn off and replace old and redundant authentication systems. If you’re receiving pushback for 2FA methods, introduce policies or implement the authentication in stages across the company, starting with high-risk users. Also, have a support plan to handle failed logins and account lockouts.

Keep in mind though that Cyber Security should be a part of your business’ culture. Everyone must be on board with implementing security measures, as multi-factor authentication is just one of the eight strategies and businesses need to implement them all to a certain degree.

Types of Two-Factor Authentication

SMS Token: Sends the user a unique token, usually a 5–10-digit code, via text message after entering their username and password, and this pin is then entered to allow them access. While user-friendly and available to pretty much everyone, text messages can easily get intercepted by 3rd parties and this method relies on people having a charged phone.

Email Token: Similar to SMS Token, this method sends a 5–10 alpha-numeric token or asks you to click a link provided in the email. Once again, these are user-friendly, cheap to set up and maintain and offer both a link or token if one doesn’t work. Sometimes, emails can go to spam or fail to be delivered and these can be intercepted by criminals.

Hardware Token: A user is given a physical device, such as a key fob, USB dongle or another device that generates a token for the staff member. These tokens are usually valid for only a short time. Hardware tokens don’t require reception or internet connectivity and is reliable and secure. They can be a bit expensive to set up though, and can be misplaced and can be a bit user-unfriendly when having one for service. Examples include:

  • Yubico YubiKey 5
  • Kensington VeriMark USB
  • Google Titan Security Key

Software Token: Where users download and install an application on their computer or device that generates tokens for the user. These are only available for short periods before changing. These are more user-friendly, updates when needed and can be customised with different features. Some can be expensive, though, and requires users to download and install software that might be compromised without knowledge. Two-Factor Authentication is available on most applications today for no additional cost and should be enforced across these applications. A firewall can also help by enforcing 2FA for remote connections. Examples of 2FA software include:

  • Google Authenticator
  • Microsoft Authenticator
  • LastPass Authenticator
  • andOTP
  • Authy

Phone Call: The employee receives a phone call once logged in, which provides them with the token. This method is both easy and inconvenient but is cheap and reliable due to requiring less bandwidth than data. Some negatives of this service are that phone calls can be intercepted or your voicemails can be hacked, and reception is required, as well as actually needing a phone.

Biometric Verification: Relies on the user being the token through fingerprints, retina scans and voice and facial recognition. It’s also user-friendly. This does, however, raise questions about the storage of biometric data and privacy concerns, and storage locations can be compromised. It also requires specific hardware, like cameras and scanners.

Implementing two-factor authentication is a simple and effective way to improve your SME’s Cyber Security posture. By requiring two authentication factors, 2FA makes it much more difficult for cybercriminals to gain unauthorised access to your sensitive data and systems.

If you have any questions or would like help implementing 2FA for your SME, please don’t hesitate to contact us. Our team of expert technicians specialising in Cyber Security can help you choose the right solution and ensure that it is configured correctly for your business.

Cybersecurity, Essential Eight, MSP

10 Benefits of Performing a Cyber Security Risk Assessment

10 Benefits of Performing a Cyber Security Risk Assessment

You’re not alone if you feel concerned about the security of your business. In today’s digital age, cyber threats are a constant concern for businesses of all sizes. One way to protect your business is by performing a Cyber Security risk assessment. While it may seem like a chore, especially when you have plenty of other business issues or projects to work on, there are many benefits of conducting a risk assessment, and completing one can actually save your business.

What is a Cyber Security Risk Assessment?

Before we delve into the benefits of a Cyber Security risk assessment, let’s define what it is. A Cyber Security risk assessment is the process of identifying, evaluating and prioritising potential security risks to your business’ technology systems, networks and data. This assessment is crucial in understanding the vulnerabilities of your business’s digital assets and how they could be exploited by malicious actors.

The Benefits of Performing a Cyber Security Risk Assessment

Performing a Cyber Security risk assessment can provide many benefits to your business. Here are 10 of the most significant advantages of conducting a risk assessment:

Identifying Vulnerabilities

A risk assessment can help identify vulnerabilities in your business’s technology systems, networks and data. By identifying these vulnerabilities, you can take proactive steps to mitigate them before they’re exploited by cybercriminals. This also allows you to improve the Cyber Security stance of the business and create a Cyber Security culture within your company.

Prioritising Risks

Conducting a risk assessment can help prioritise risks to your business’s technology systems, networks and data, and allows your business to introduce the appropriate response strategies to the vulnerabilities you have identified. By doing so, you can allocate resources to address the most significant risks first, ensuring that your business is protected where it matters most.

Complying with Regulations

Many industries have regulations that require businesses to perform Cyber Security risk assessments regularly. By complying with these regulations, you can avoid hefty fines and penalties, and safeguard your business from legal troubles. In Australia, all businesses need to comply with The Privacy Act 1988, meaning they need to have some sort of measures in place to protect consumers’ information. For public sector organisations, the Australian Government has also brought in Essential Eight, a Cyber Security framework that they must implement. This is highly recommended for all other businesses in Australia too, and we predict it will be mandated for everyone soon.

Reducing Downtime

Cyberattacks can cause significant downtime for your business, resulting in lost productivity and revenue. Downtime can cause customers to go elsewhere and can cause staff to halt projects or start working manually which they will then have to fix later on when IT issues are resolved. By performing a risk assessment, you can identify potential threats and implement preventative measures to reduce the likelihood of a cyberattack and minimise downtime.

Protecting Your Reputation

A data breach can damage your business’s reputation and erode customer trust. When customers lose trust in your business’ ability to protect their information or even just in your ability to protect yourself, they will stop using your business or bypass your services altogether even if they’ve never used them before. As for stakeholders like suppliers, they may be hesitant to work with an organisation that has suffered a security breach, especially as this will disrupt the rest of the supply chain. By performing a Cyber Security risk assessment and implementing preventative measures, you can safeguard your business’ reputation and show customers that you take their data security seriously.

Improving Security Posture

A risk assessment can help you understand your business’ security position and identify areas for improvement. By addressing these areas, you can improve your business’ overall security posture and better protect against cyber threats in the future. You may find your position is actually better than you thought, giving you the reassurance that your IT team or managed service provider is doing their job and looking after the interests of your business. Overall, a risk assessment allows you to ease your fears about cyberattacks as well as the potential loss of your business.

Keeps Stakeholders Informed

A comprehensive Cyber Security Risk Assessment allows you to keep your stakeholders informed and educated on vulnerabilities as well as allows you to inform them of how you’re going about protecting the business and their interests. It also allows you to provide an executive summary to help executives and directors make informed security decisions.

Reduces Long-Term Costs

A Cyber Security risk assessment allows you to fully understand the justification behind costs being made around security, which, as a business owner or decision-maker, you need to fully comprehend just how important this additional expense is. By knowing the vulnerabilities in your IT systems, you can then spend the proper amount of time and money in fixing these issues and mitigating risks, which will ultimately save your business the costs of downtime and of dealing with cyberattacks when they occur. That’s not to say that they won’t occur even with a fantastic Cyber Security posture, but the majority will be able to be prevented and you should be able to stop the worst of the attack in its tracks when one does. You will also be able to get your business back up and running quickly and seamlessly with data recovery responses.

Prevents Data Loss

Data loss can and has destroyed businesses. It has both financial and emotional impacts on businesses of all sizes, not just large enterprises. This includes stress and anxiety due to losing customer records, financial information and key documents; financial impact surrounding the cost of lost business, lost reputation with customers and suppliers as well as with data recovery and breach response; the impacts surrounding legal consequences of not complying with data protection laws.

Improves Communication

This benefit comes from different avenues. First, a risk assessment requires information from different parts of an organisation, so this improves communication between both leaders and departments. It also breaks down barriers between management and IT staff, whether that be internal and/or external, as it allows the two groups to come together to make decisions that relate to the implementation of security requirements for systems, data and access, while also thinking about the security of the organisation as a whole.

Performing a Cyber Security risk assessment is a crucial step in protecting your business from cyber threats. It allows you to safeguard your business’ digital assets and ensure its long-term success. So, don’t wait until it’s too late. Invest in a Cyber Security risk assessment today and reap the benefits of a secure and successful business.

Frequently Asked Questions

  • How often should I perform a Cyber Security risk assessment?

It’s recommended that businesses perform a Cyber Security risk assessment at least once a year or whenever there’s a significant change to their technology systems or infrastructure.

  • What are the key components of a Cyber Security risk assessment?

A Cyber Security risk assessment typically includes identifying assets, threats, vulnerabilities and controls. It also involves assessing the likelihood and impact of potential threats and prioritising risks.

  • Who should perform a Cyber Security risk assessment?

All businesses need to conduct a Cyber Security risk assessment, not just large enterprises. It’s also recommended that businesses hire a qualified Cyber Security professional to perform this assessment as it ensures the assessment is thorough and accurate and that all potential risks are identified and addressed.

  • How long does a Cyber Security risk assessment take?

The length of a risk assessment depends on the size and complexity of the business’s technology systems and infrastructure. Typically, it can take anywhere from a few weeks to a few months to complete a comprehensive risk assessment.

  • What happens after a Cyber Security risk assessment?

After a risk assessment is completed, a report is generated that outlines potential risks and recommended actions to mitigate them. The business can then take these actions to improve its overall security posture and protect against cyber threats.

  • Is a Cyber Security risk assessment worth the investment?

Absolutely. The benefits of performing a cyber security risk assessment far outweigh the cost. By identifying vulnerabilities and implementing preventative measures, you can protect your business from cyberattacks, reduce downtime, comply with regulations and safeguard your reputation.

Cybersecurity, Essential Eight, Strategy

How to Restrict Who Accesses Certain Folders or Programs in Your Business

How to Restrict Who Accesses Certain Folders or Programs in Your Business

If you’re concerned about the security of your business’ data and want to restrict access to certain folders or programs in your organisation, keep reading.

As businesses become more digital, the need for data security has increased. It is crucial to prevent unauthorised access to sensitive information and protect it from potential cyberattacks. Restricting access to certain folders or programs is an effective way to secure your data as it allows you to control who has access to what data and ensures that only authorised personnel can access sensitive information.

Certain users or teams within your business may need a higher level of access than others, as giving someone access to change permissions and install updates to apps and the device is necessary, but when someone within or outside your business gets access to this, they can accidentally or intentionally cause immense damage.

By restricting who has access, it makes it difficult for malicious users to affect certain applications, obtain sensitive information or change privileges to prevent staff from being able to work effectively.

Restricting administrative privileges is also one of the Australian Cyber Security Centre’s (ACSC) Essential Eight mitigation strategies against cyber threats, so if you’re currently looking at implementing this framework, keep reading to learn about how to do this.

How to Restrict Who Accesses Certain Folders or Programs in Your Business

To restrict who accesses certain folders or programs in your business, you can follow these steps:

  • Identify Tasks: Start by identifying the tasks that require administrative privileges, then work out which staff members are required and authorised to carry out these tasks as part of their roles.
  • Create User Accounts: Create user accounts for each employee in your organisation. Each employee should have a unique username and password to access the system.
  • Assign Access Rights: Assign access rights to each user account. You can set permissions to read, write or execute files in specific folders or programs. Make sure users have the least amount of privileges needed to carry out their roles.
  • Use Encryption: Use encryption to protect sensitive data from unauthorised access. Encryption ensures that only authorised personnel can access the data, even if it falls into the wrong hands.
  • Implement Access Control Policies: Implement access control policies to restrict access to certain folders or programs. You can set policies based on job roles, departments or projects.
  • Monitor Access Logs: Monitor access logs to identify any unauthorised attempts to access sensitive data. This can help you identify security breaches and take corrective measures to prevent future incidents. Make sure to revalidate staff requirements to have a privileged account frequently so that when their role changes or they leave the business, you can remove these privileges.

What is Not Effective?

The ACSC advises that there are a number of approaches that do not qualify as restricting administrative privileges and which can actually increase the risk to an organisation.

  • Only minimising the total number of privileged accounts
  • Allowing for shared non-attributable privileged accounts
  • Allocating administrative privileges to users temporarily
  • Placing non-admin users in groups with users that have administrative privileges

Benefits of Restricting Access to Certain Folders or Programs in Your Business

Restricting access to certain folders or programs in your business can provide several benefits, including:

  • Improved Data Security: Restricting access to sensitive information can improve data security and prevent data breaches.
  • Compliance with Regulations: Restricting access to certain folders or programs can help you comply with regulations and standards, such as The Privacy Act and Essential Eight.
  • Reduced Risk of Cyber Attacks: Restricting access to sensitive data can reduce the risk of cyberattacks and protect your business from potential threats.
  • Increased Control: Restricting access to certain folders or programs can give you increased control over who has access to what data.

Restricting access to certain folders or programs in your business is a crucial step in ensuring the security of your data. By creating user accounts, assigning access rights, using encryption, implementing access control policies and monitoring access logs, you can prevent unauthorised access to sensitive information and protect your business from potential cyberattacks. Don’t neglect this important aspect of your business security, act today and protect your data!

Remember, the security of your business data is essential to your success and you must take all necessary measures to protect it from unauthorised access. With the right security measures in place, you can rest assured that your data is safe and your business is protected.

Frequently Asked Questions

  • What is the best way to restrict access to certain folders or programs in my business?

The best way to restrict access to certain folders or programs in your business is to create user accounts, assign access rights, use encryption, implement access control policies and monitor access logs.

  • What are the benefits of restricting access to certain folders or programs in my business?

The benefits of restricting access to certain folders or programs in your business include improved data security, compliance with regulations, reduced risk of cyberattacks and increased control over who has access to what data.

  • Can I restrict access to certain folders or programs based on job roles or departments?

Yes, you can restrict access to certain folders or programs based on job roles or departments by implementing access control policies.

  • How can I monitor access logs to identify unauthorised attempts to access sensitive data?

You can monitor access logs to identify unauthorised attempts to access sensitive data by using software tools that track user activity and notify you of any suspicious activity. This can help you identify security breaches and take corrective measures to prevent future incidents.

  • What are the consequences of not restricting access to sensitive data in my business?

Not restricting access to sensitive data in your business can result in data breaches, cyberattacks, financial losses, legal liabilities and damage to your business’ reputation.

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