Essential Eight Self-Assessment for Australian Businesses

Answer 24 practical questions to identify likely gaps across the Australian Signals Directorate’s Essential Eight.

Select each control that is consistently implemented and verified.

1. Application control
2. Patch applications
3. Configure Microsoft Office macro settings
4. User application hardening
5. Restrict administrative privileges
6. Patch operating systems
7. Multi-factor authentication
8. Regular backups

Select the controls that are consistently implemented, then calculate your score.

How to Use Your Results

Do not treat the percentage as certification. For every selected item, gather evidence such as configuration exports, policy records, deployment reports, logs and restoration-test results. A control that exists on paper but is not consistently enforced should be treated as a gap.

Recommended Priorities

  1. Protect remote access, email, cloud services and administrators with MFA.
  2. Patch exposed systems and replace unsupported software.
  3. Separate and reduce administrative privileges.
  4. Maintain isolated backups and prove they can be restored.
  5. Progressively harden applications and implement application control.

Authoritative Reference

Read the current Australian Signals Directorate Essential Eight Maturity Model before making formal maturity claims.

Useful Next Steps

Review the Ransomware Response Checklist, learn how ransomware affects Australian businesses, or arrange an Essential Eight Readiness Assessment.

Discuss Your Results