Why does my organisation need the Essential Eight?

In a digital age where all major business functions are now carried out online, cyber attacks are unfortunately on the rise. Businesses of all sizes fall victim to both opportunistic and planned attacks every day. This is because their security levels simply aren’t up to scratch. While there are several reasons for cyber attacks, the main ones include:

• Financial gain

• Insider threats (incl. non-intentional negligence)

• Political motivations

• State-sponsored attacks

• Corporate espionage

Weak IT infrastructure and security systems can also be responsible for novice hackers striking without cause. In these cases, hackers identify holes in your security and exploit them. The first rule of cyber security protection is to make hackers work for their reward, never just invite them in.

Even though no measures can offer full protection against a hacker on a mission, compliance with the Essential Eight strategy significantly improves your chances of fending off an attack. The more concrete your mitigation strategies are, the more likely you are to be alerted to an early attack. The bottom line is, why leave something to chance that you can secure yourself against now?

An increasing number of sectors also now view the Essential Eight as an industry standard for cyber security. Going beyond what previous measures offered, the Essential Eight has been carefully formulated to offer better protection than ever before. 

In the event of an attack, it's important that your organisation can assure stakeholders that the measures you had in place were adequate. Adopting the Essential Eight is a great way of doing this.