Guidance and support is available to help you protect your online accounts, digital networks, assets and data.
Cybersecurity guidance
The Australian Government's Australian Signals Directorate (ASD) website provides a range of guidance aimed at small and medium businesses.
Small Business Cyber Security Guide and Checklist
Use the Small Business Cyber Security Guide and Checklist to help your businesses protect against common cyber threats.
They provide simple and inexpensive measures your business can apply to improve their cybersecurity measures such as:
- turn on multifactor authentication
- apply automatic updates to software
- apply automatic data backups and testing of backups
- review access controls to systems, files and mailboxes
- implement policies to strengthen passwords, using passphrases
- increase staff awareness to recognise cyber threats
Specific guidance, incorporating both cybersecurity controls and business process and policy is published on preventing Business Email Compromise (BEC).
A Ransomware Prevention Guide and a Ransomware Emergency Response Guide is also available to support small and medium businesses.
Small business hub
Visit the ASD's small business hub to find out how to keep your business secure from common cyber threats.
Essential Eight
ASD has developed strategies to mitigate cybersecurity incidents to help organisations protect themselves against various cyberthreats.
The most effective of these mitigation strategies are the Essential Eight.
The Essential Eight has been designed to protect organisations’ internet-connected information technology networks.
ASD publish guidance on the Essential Eight maturity model and implementation. They also publish guidance on:
- cloud service security
- remote working and security for mobile devices
- operational technology
- architecture
- secure-by-design technology
- secure outsourcing and procurement
- Questions to ask your managed service provider.
Information Security Manual (ISM)
The ISM sets out cybersecurity principles to provide strategic guidance on how your organisation can protect against cyber threats.
These cybersecurity principles are grouped into 5 functions.
- Govern: Develop a strong cybersecurity culture.
- Identify: Identify assets and associated security risks.
- Protect: Implement controls to manage security risks.
- Detect: Detect and analyse cybersecurity events to identify cyber security incidents.
- Respond: Respond to and recover from cybersecurity incidents.
The ISM is intended for:
- chief information security officers
- chief information officers
- cybersecurity professionals
- information technology managers.
Resilience and recovery
The below documents and web pages from ASD are recommended reading:
Information provided on this site will refer to advice published by the Australian Signals Directorate (ASD) and their Australian Cyber Security Centre service as the lead Australian Government authority for technical advice, guidance and support.
You can visit the ASD’s website at cyber.gov.au and read more about their services.