The ASD Essential Eight is Australia’s leading cyber security baseline for protecting businesses from common threats such as ransomware, phishing, malicious software and unauthorised access. Developed by the Australian Signals Directorate (ASD), the Essential Eight provides eight practical strategies that help organisations improve cyber resilience, reduce risk and strengthen their overall security posture.
In simple terms, the Essential Eight focuses on the basics that make the biggest difference: controlling what can run, keeping software up to date, limiting admin access, using multi-factor authentication, securing Microsoft Office settings, hardening user applications, and making reliable backups. These measures work together to make it harder for attackers to get in, move around, and cause damage if they do.
For many small to mid-sized organisations, Microsoft 365 Business Premium can be configured to support most of the Essential Eight control requirements. With tools such as Microsoft Intune, Microsoft Entra ID, Microsoft Defender for Business and Defender for Office 365, organisations can strengthen multi-factor authentication, manage devices, reduce application risk, improve email security and support secure backup and recovery practices. While licensing and environment design still need to be assessed carefully, it is a strong foundation for achieving a practical Essential Eight uplift.
- Application control
- Patch applications
- Configure Microsoft Office macro settings
- User application hardening
- Restrict administrative privileges
- Patch operating systems
- Multi-factor authentication
- Regular backups
The biggest challenge for most organisations is turning the Essential Eight from a checklist into a practical, cost-effective program of work. Forde Consulting can help assess your current maturity, identify gaps, and configure Microsoft 365 Business Premium to align with most Essential Eight control requirements. If you want a clearer path to stronger cyber security, call Forde Consulting to explore your next steps.