New Zealand, like any other country, is not immune to cyber threats. The country’s cyber security strategy has four main goals: exercising cyber resilience, having cyber capabilities, improving cybersecurity, and increasing international cooperation. Implementing the Essential Eight can significantly contribute to achieving these goals.
What is the Essential Eight?
The Essential Eight are a set of strategies designed to provide a baseline for cybersecurity. They include:
Application control: Only approved applications are allowed to run within our network.
Patch applications: All applications are regularly updated to their latest versions to fix security vulnerabilities.
Configure Microsoft Office macro settings: Macros can be used maliciously. Configuring these settings can prevent such attacks.
User application hardening: Features in Microsoft Office, web browsers, and PDF viewers that can be exploited are disabled.
Restrict administrative privileges: The number of users with administrative privileges is minimized.
Patch operating systems: The operating system is regularly updated to its latest version to fix security vulnerabilities.
Multi-factor authentication: More than one method of authentication is used.
Daily backups: Important data is regularly backed up.
How Will This Affect You?
The implementation of the Essential Eight will have some impact on your daily work, but it is designed to provide a safer and more secure digital environment for everyone.
We understand that these changes may require some adjustments. However, they are crucial for protecting our organization and your work from cyber threats. We appreciate your understanding and cooperation.
The Essential Eight for Security program:
Below are some pre-recorded webinars from Microsoft to explain in a little more detail.
