The Essential Eight is a set of eight baseline mitigation strategies published by the Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC) to help organisations make it harder for attackers to compromise their systems. It is widely used as a benchmark in Australia.
The strategies cover application control, patching applications, configuring Microsoft Office macro settings, user application hardening, restricting administrative privileges, patching operating systems, multi-factor authentication and regular backups. Organisations are assessed against maturity levels that describe how completely each is implemented.
Retailers and hospitality businesses use it as a practical checklist for their IT security. Even partial progress, such as enabling multi-factor authentication and keeping systems patched, removes many common attack routes.
It is a baseline, not a guarantee, and it needs ongoing maintenance. Start by knowing your current level, then prioritise the gaps that matter most to your environment.