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The Essential Eight is evolving into the ASD Essentials series. ASE Tech assesses where you stand, closes the gaps and keeps your controls working, so the uplift you do today carries straight into the new framework.
In October 2026 the Australian Signals Directorate published ASD Essentials, a series that evolves the Essential Eight. Its first three chapters cover enterprise IT, cloud and operational technology.
The biggest shift is how progress is measured. Instead of a maturity level for eight mitigation strategies, ASD Essentials rates how effective your controls actually are across each domain of your environment. Deployed is no longer the same as done.
ASD's advice is clear: don't pause uplift work while the frameworks change. Here's how we help, wherever you sit.
An Essential Eight maturity assessment gives you a baseline across all eight strategies and a prioritised plan to reach your target level, built so the work also counts towards ASD Essentials.
Your existing controls and evidence will carry across. We help you finish the uplift you've started and line up the next steps against the ASD Essentials domains.
Maturity levels don't convert directly into effectiveness ratings. We help you test and evidence how well your controls perform, and report in terms of outcomes and risk.
We don't hand over a report and leave. The engineers who assess your environment are the same team that helps you fix it and keep it running.
A hands-on review of all eight strategies against the ASD maturity model, so you know your current maturity level and what's holding it back.
Gaps prioritised by risk and effort, with a practical plan to reach Maturity Level Two or whatever target your obligations set.
Our engineers implement the controls: application control, patching, MFA, admin privileges, hardening and backups.
Controls kept current through our managed services, with the evidence ready when an auditor, customer or regulator asks.
We map your Essential Eight work to the new principles, actions and domains, and show where effectiveness gaps remain.
Support for the cloud and operational technology chapters, drawing on our experience securing critical infrastructure.
Review your environment against the Essential Eight maturity model and confirm the level your obligations require.
Rank the gaps by risk, effort and cost, and agree a roadmap that fits your budget and timelines.
Implement the controls with minimal disruption, mapped to ASD Essentials as we go.
Monitor controls, keep evidence current and report progress in terms your board understands.
These controls remain the foundation of the enterprise IT chapter of ASD Essentials. Getting them right now is never wasted work.
Only approved applications can run.
Fix known vulnerabilities in apps quickly.
Block untrusted macros from running.
Turn off features attackers abuse.
Limit and review privileged access.
Keep operating systems current and supported.
Protect users, admins and remote access.
Back up, protect and test your restores.
ASD Essentials now includes a dedicated chapter for operational technology. If you're a responsible entity under the SOCI Act, it's worth understanding how it sits alongside your CIRMP and the framework you already report against.
The team that finds the gaps is the team that closes them, so nothing gets lost between a report and the fix.
Two decades working with energy and critical infrastructure operators, across both IT and OT environments.
We're already mapping Essential Eight work to ASD Essentials, so your investment isn't stranded by the transition.
We've been through formal compliance ourselves and bring that discipline to how we evidence your controls.
Book an Essential Eight assessment. We'll show you your current maturity, the gaps that matter most and how your work lines up with ASD Essentials.