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Essential Eight

Essential Eight

The Essential Eight compliance controls

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Application Patching

Patches are often used to resolve bugs and security vulnerabilities in an application, which means they are critical to ensuring the security of those applications. Organizations should be performing vulnerability scans to identify missing patches and, when a patch for an application is released by a vendor, updates must be applied in a timeframe commensurate with their exposure to vulnerability. They should also be removing applications that are no longer supported by vendors.

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Operating System Patching

Patches on operating systems are intended to fix performance bugs and address security vulnerabilities, and ensuring they are applied can prevent crashes due to software defects and extended downtime during security incidents. Organizations should conduct regular scans for patch updates and apply those updates in a timely manner. All patches for operating systems should be tested before installing to ensure that they are safe.

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Multifactor Authentication

Multifactor authentication (MFA) prevents unauthorized users or threat actors from gaining access to a computing device, network, or database, and also makes it more difficult to steal legitimate credentials. Organizations should mandate two or more identifiers in addition to a password to gain access to an application or service. In so doing, unauthorized users are unable to meet the second authentication requirement, even in the case that a legitimate credential is compromised.

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Restrict Administrative Privileges

When threat actors gain access to workstations or servers, they can elevate privileges to spread to other hosts, hide their existence, obtain sensitive data, or resist removal efforts. Organizations should restrict the permissions that allow users to perform certain functions on a system or network, as well as restrict access to certain applications, files, and data. With fewer users able to make significant changes and access sensitive data, the operating environment is more predictable and easier to administer.

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Application Control

Application control ensures the security of systems by controlling the execution of applications based on a set of predefined rules and policies. It ensures that only approved applications can be installed and used, which prevents unauthorized users or threat actors from executing and spreading malicious code. Organizations should identify approved applications, develop control rules to ensure that only approved applications can execute, and validate the performance of these control rules on a frequent basis.

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Restrict Microsoft Office Macros

Users can write macros for legitimate reasons, such as improving productivity, but they can also be written by threat actors in order to gain access to a system and perform various malicious activities. Organizations should manage the use of macros and have them checked by assessors that are independent of macro developers. Assessing the safety of a macro involves verifying if there is a business requirement for the macro, confirming that the macro has been developed by a trusted party, and ensuring that the macro is free of signs of malicious code.

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User Application Hardening

Some commonly used applications can perform high-risk functions, and threat actors can exploit these functions in applications that frequently interact with the web. At the very least, organizations should disable unnecessary and/or high-risk functions in these programs. Higher cybersecurity maturity requires a more layered approach, that may involve runtime protection, application monitoring, code obfuscation, and strong authentication requirements.

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Regular Backups

Backing up important data, software, and configuration settings is part of any strong incident response plan. It’s a precautionary measure that protects against hardware failure, human error, and cyber incidents, by ensuring that an organization can restore important information. Organizations should establish a regular backup routine, with regularity based in how frequently their data changes and how important that data is. There should also be access controls around backups and a process for modification and deletion.

Conquer Essential Eight with these ConnectSecure features

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Vulnerability Scanning: Stay ahead of threat actors with automated continuous scanning for CVEs (Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures) across software, hardware, and networks.

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Prioritize Remediation: Use the Exploit Prediction Scoring System (EPSS) to identify and prioritize vulnerabilities as you guide clients through the 3 levels of Essential Eight cybersecurity maturity.

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Patch Management: Customize patch management to Essential Eight standards and automate the patching process for over 600 third-party applications and diverse operating systems.

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Application Baseline Audits: Define what applications are approved to run on your network and prevent unauthorized applications from executing.

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Access Control: Leverage Active Directory auditing to gain visibility into user activities and access rights, enforce MFA, and deliver alerts that enable a prompt response to violations.

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Device, Network and Application Discovery: Scan and catalog your clients' IT ecosystems, because you can’t protect what you don’t know.

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Compliance Management: Document the compliance process, evaluate its effectiveness with thorough reporting capabilities, and share easy-to-understand results with clients.

How Your Clients Benefit from Essential Eight Compliance

Cyber threats are evolving rapidly, from ransomware attacks and phishing scams to data breaches and application vulnerabilities. As an MSP, offering Essential Eight compliance services positions you as a crucial ally in the battle against threat actors. By helping them implement these critical controls, you ensure not just their immediate security but their long-term business success as well. Here are 5 reasons Essential Eight compliance matters to your clients. 

Cost Effectiveness

The cost of Essential Eight implementation is significantly less in comparison to the costs of a cyber incident, which involves remediation efforts, legal fees, and reputational damage.

Enhanced Security

Essential Eight enhances the ability to detect, respond to, and recover from security incidents, minimizing operational disruption and financial loss if an incident occurs.

Regulatory Compliance

While Essential Eight compliance isn’t mandatory, achieving this standard simplifies alignment with other cybersecurity frameworks. It can open doors to larger contracts and new business opportunities, especially in expanding to different regions.

Improved Market Positioning

Organizations that demonstrate strong cybersecurity practices can differentiate themselves from their competitors in the marketplace and attract clients that prioritize security.

Customer Satisfaction

Demonstrating compliance with Essential Eight can improve an organization's reputation as a responsible and trustworthy entity, leading to increased stakeholder confidence and loyalty.

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Karl Bickmore, CEO, Snap Tech IT

Karl Bickmore

CEO | Snap Tech IT
“We're providing better reporting, better data, better planning, and it's helping us win more deals — like significantly more deals — and our sophistication has gone way up.”
Dennis Houseknecht, CTO, WatSec Cyber Risk Management

Dennis Houseknecht

CTO | WatSec Cyber Risk Management
“There's no all-in-one tool on the market — and I follow the market pretty closely — that has the depth and breadth of ConnectSecure's vulnerability scans, and that's presented in such an actionable way.”
McKaila Posey, Cybersecurity Services Manager, Entara

McKaila Posey

Cybersecurity Services Manager | Entara
“ConnectSecure has transformed our service delivery. Not only has ConnectSecure helped our clients really see the value we bring, but the metrics of our engineers also look fantastic.”
Paul Rouse, President and Owner, Rouse Consulting Group

Paul Rouse

President and Owner | Rouse Consulting Group
“ConnectSecure really has opened so many additional doors and capabilities to extend our cybersecurity suite of services. It’s made us more efficient in many ways”
Sandeep Kaushal, President, TeamLogic IT

Sandeep Kaushal

President | TeamLogic IT
“ConnectSecure is a very important tool for us to determine the health of our prospects during onboarding. There’s no impact on performance and we’re able to collect a lot of data. There’s twofold benefit to that — we know what’s going on with their infrastructure and clients know we can provide proof that we’re keeping an eye on things.”
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