ACSC Essential Eight Security Compliance
Case Study: Real-Time Security Compliance Management with Ikara for a Government Agency
Client Overview:
A government agency sought to enhance its security posture in line with the ACSC Essential Eight security framework. The agency faced the challenge of aligning multiple technical teams and complex operational processes to achieve and maintain a high level of security maturity across its diverse IT environment.
Challenges:
- Complex Organisational Structure: The agency’s multiple domains and stakeholders made it difficult to achieve consecutive levels of Essential Eight compliance, given the breadth of controls that needed to be managed simultaneously.
- Lack of Real-Time Visibility: The agency needed a real-time, automated system to assess and report on their security posture, providing both technical and non-technical executives with a clear understanding of organisational risk profiles.
- Operational Integration: The agency required a solution that integrated seamlessly with their existing management and reporting tools without disrupting current operational processes.
- Security Compliance Alignment: Aligning disparate technical teams towards a common level of security maturity was essential for achieving and maintaining the agency’s security standards.
Solution:
The agency partnered with Ikara to implement the Ikara Security Compliance platform, specifically designed to address the challenges of achieving and maintaining security compliance in complex organizational environments. Key aspects of the solution included:
- Real-Time Security Posture Assessment:
- Ikara Security Compliance provided the agency with real-time assessments of its security posture, aligned with the ACSC Essential Eight framework. This enabled the agency to monitor and visualise its progress towards security standards minute by minute.
- Automated Integration with Existing Tools:
- The platform integrated data compliance events from the management and reporting tools the agency already had in place, automating the current state assessment for both technical and non-technical executives. This allowed for a comprehensive view of organisational risk without the need for changes to existing operational processes.
- Real-Time Security Posture Assessment:
- Comprehensive Security Insights:
- The solution assessed each security strategy and control individually, providing deep insights into the agency’s day-to-day operational hygiene for security standards. By monitoring thousands of devices, workstations, and servers every minute, Ikara offered a detailed summary of the current security state.
- Simplified Compliance Management:
- Ikara’s platform provided a single screen summary view of outstanding actions, enabling security teams to meet up and identify areas that required immediate attention. This feature promoted accountability and streamlined communication across discrete IT operational groups.
- Evergreen Compliance Process:
- The platform supported an evergreen process of maintaining security standards, allowing the agency to see the impact of new configurations or platforms on their overall security compliance. This continuous monitoring and adjustment ensured that the agency remained aligned with Essential Eight obligations.
- Enhanced Digital Supply Chain Transparency:
- The platform allowed the agency to extend its security compliance requirements to suppliers, ensuring that any supplier involved in IT service delivery adhered to Essential Eight obligations. This drove greater transparency and control over the agency’s digital supply chain.
Results:
- Improved Security Maturity: The agency achieved a significant improvement in security maturity by aligning all technical teams towards the ACSC Essential Eight framework. The real-time visualisation of progress enabled immediate action on lagging indicators, ensuring a continuous improvement in security posture.
- Streamlined Compliance Management: The automated integration with existing tools and the simplified compliance management dashboard allowed the agency to efficiently monitor and manage security compliance across all domains, reducing the administrative burden on IT teams.
- Ongoing Security Compliance: By maintaining an evergreen process, the agency could continuously monitor and adjust its security standards, ensuring ongoing compliance with Essential Eight and adapting to any new challenges as they arose.
Conclusion:
Ikara’s Security Compliance platform provided the government agency with the tools needed to effectively manage and improve its security posture in line with the ACSC Essential Eight framework. Through real-time assessments, automated reporting, and seamless integration with existing tools, the agency was able to achieve and maintain a high level of security maturity across its complex IT environment. This case study illustrates the power of real-time security compliance management in safeguarding organizational assets and ensuring regulatory adherence.