Blogs
Attaining a Security SPD
In the second article in our Security SPD series, Michael Brooke offers tips to help partners gain the insight track from start to finish.
The Essential Eight is a widely used framework to help businesses identify the most common security threats, assess risk levels for each threat, and put mitigations in place for the eight most common vulnerabilities in their networks.
The Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC)* developed these prioritised mitigation strategies to provide businesses with clear guidance on how to mitigate cyber threats and incidents. Crayon’s cybersecurity specialist subsidary, emt Distribution can assist your organisation to evaluate the effectiveness and maturity level of all the Essential Eight security controls.
Conduct discovery workshops to collect relevant evidence and identify current baseline.
Review the gathered data, identify risk and compare it to highlight maturity gaps according to the ACSC Essential Eight.
Deliver the executive report highlighting the effectiveness of the controls, with emphasis on those that need immediate remediation based on risk categories: PREVENT, LIMIT and RECOVER.
Outcome based workshops. Timelines vary depending on maturity level assessment focus area.
Detailed reports provide a clear view of findings per control, priority actions and recommendations.
Partners have the options to white label the assessment or position as an independent third-party service.
Experienced regional assessors backed by a global team of cybersecurity experts.

Working with Crayon’s channel team provides partners with advantages, whether they want to gain traction in this domain or scale an existing cybersecurity practice. Partners can leverage the assessment service to support ongoing conversations with customers, and bring their own services, or allied partners with cybersecurity expertise to the table. Equally, partners with mature cybersecurity practices can utilise Crayon’s service to provide account coverage and build pipeline for future works.
Whatever the scenario for your business, our team offers an end-to-end service that can help you take your customers from initial assessment to project scope, solution consulting and full implementation.

The ASD Essential Eight is a cybersecurity framework developed by the Australian Signals Directorate (ASD) to help organizations mitigate cyber threats and enhance their cybersecurity posture.
The Essential Eight comprises eight key strategies that organisations can implement to mitigate the most common cybersecurity threats. These strategies include application allowlisting, patching applications, configuring Microsoft Office macro settings, user application hardening, restricting administrative privileges, patching operating systems, multi-factor authentication, and daily backups.
The Essential Eight provides organisations with a set of practical, actionable strategies to enhance their cybersecurity defenses and protect against a wide range of cyber threats, including malware, ransomware, and phishing attacks.
The ASD Essential Eight framework is relevant to a wide range of organisations, including government agencies, businesses, educational institutions, and non-profits. Any organisation that handles sensitive information or relies on digital systems to conduct business can benefit from implementing the Essential Eight strategies.
Organisations can implement the Essential Eight framework by assessing their current cybersecurity posture, identifying gaps and areas for improvement, and then systematically implementing the eight mitigation strategies outlined in the framework. This may involve deploying security controls, configuring systems, educating staff, and monitoring for compliance.
Implementing the Essential Eight framework can help organisations to strengthen their cybersecurity defenses, reduce the risk of security breaches and data loss, enhance regulatory compliance, improve incident response capabilities, and protect their reputation and brand.
While compliance with the ASD Essential Eight framework is not mandatory, it is highly recommended for organisations looking to improve their cybersecurity posture and protect against cyber threats effectively. Many government agencies and industry regulators also require compliance with the Essential Eight as part of their cybersecurity requirements.
Organisations should regularly review and update their implementation of the Essential Eight framework to ensure it remains effective against evolving cyber threats and changes in their operating environment. This may involve conducting regular security assessments, performing risk assessments, and staying informed about emerging threats and best practices in cybersecurity.
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