Essential Eight vs. Maturity Levels: Only One Comes Out on Top

If you’re “ticking boxes” with Essential Eight, it’s time to change your approach to achieve true cyber resilience. By leaning into the Essential Eight Maturity Model, you’re not just doing security but doing it well enough to defend against real-world threats.

If this sounds confusing, you’re not the only one looking for answers. Many MSPs ask us about Essential Eight, which is basically a checklist of eight controls. The problem? This security baseline isn’t really what the Australian government wants.

In this post, we’ll help you understand the difference between implementing the Essential Eight controls and adopting the Essential Eight Maturity Model. By the time you reach the end, you’ll know why we have chosen to focus on the maturity levels for our clients and why you should too.

What is the Essential Eight?

Australia ranked as the 11th most breached nation globally in 2024, making cybersecurity a burning priority for every organization. Developed by the Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC), the Essential Eight offers eight specific cybersecurity mitigation strategies for organizations looking to protect themselves against cyber threats.

These strategies are designed to protect organizations against the most common cyber threats:

Application Control: Preventing the execution of unauthorized or malicious software.
Patch Applications: Ensuring timely updates and security fixes for software applications.
Configure Microsoft Office Macro Settings: Blocking or restricting the use of potentially dangerous macros in Microsoft Office documents.
User Application Hardening: Configuring web browsers, email clients, and other user applications to reduce their attack surface.
Restrict Administrative Privileges: Limiting the number of users with elevated system access.
Patch Operating Systems: Applying security updates and fixes to operating systems promptly.
Multi-Factor Authentication: Requiring more than one verification factor to access systems and data.
Regular Backups: Maintaining up-to-date and readily restorable backups of critical data.

Think of the Essential Eight as your initial checklist for establishing basic cyber hygiene. This focused set of “must-do” actions helps you build a strong security foundation.

What are the Essential Eight maturity levels?

The ACSC’s Information Security Manual (ISM) is a detailed cybersecurity framework that covers a wide range of security domains, including:

technical controls
governance
personnel security
physical security
incident management

The Essential Eight is a subset of the ISM's broader technical security controls, and the Essential Eight maturity model is mapped to relevant controls within the ISM.

Many organizations might start their cybersecurity journey by implementing the Essential Eight as a foundational layer of security due to its focused and actionable nature. When organizations need to know how effectively each control is working, the maturity model provides four levels for measuring effectiveness and completeness:

Maturity Level Zero: Incomplete or no implementation

At this level, the control is either not in place or is implemented in a way that offers little to no real protection, meaning that significant vulnerabilities remain.

Maturity Level One: Basic protection against common threats

This level signifies that the control is implemented, but likely in a default or basic configuration, offering protection against common and opportunistic attacks.

Maturity Level Two: Enhanced protection against more sophisticated threats.

The implementation of the control is more robust, incorporating more secure configurations and processes. At this level, an organization can deter more sophisticated attackers.

Maturity Level Three: Advanced, adaptive defenses against highly targeted attacks

At the highest level of maturity, the control is implemented with best practices, actively monitored and enforced, and can effectively defend against advanced and targeted cyber threats.

5 Reasons Why Maturity Levels Outperform Basic Implementation

1. Builds resilience

Effective cybersecurity is about building a resilient security posture, not just completing a checklist. If the Essential Eight outlines what to do, the maturity levels define how well you're doing it. In other words, the maturity model ensures you're not just implementing security controls but implementing them effectively enough to stop attackers.

2. Tailored to your risk profile

Not every organization faces the same threats. The maturity model allows you to scale your security efforts to align with your specific risk environment, moving beyond a generic, one-size-fits-all approach. You can strategically target higher maturity levels for controls that address your most significant risks.

3. Achieves a culture of compliance

While the Essential Eight focuses on technical controls, the maturity approach encourages a holistic view of security. Achieving higher maturity levels often means aligning technical controls with broader organizational policies, processes, and awareness programs.

4. Focuses on continuous improvement

Cyber threats evolve. The maturity model fosters a culture of continuous improvement by enabling organizations to regularly assess their security standing, establish clear goals for advancement, and progressively strengthen their defenses over time. This proactive approach is far more effective than a static, “set and forget” mentality.

5. Allows for clear measurement and reporting

For many organizations, especially those with regulatory obligations, using the maturity model ensures a more auditable and scalable approach to cybersecurity. Maturity levels offer a clear and objective way to measure progress, facilitating transparent reporting to stakeholders, regulators, and insurers.

Moving Beyond Checkbox Security: A Strategic Approach

Many organizations approach the Essential Eight as a simple checklist, but this “tick-box” mentality can create a false sense of security.

Focusing solely on the presence of controls, without considering their maturity, can lead to a dangerous gap between perceived security and actual resilience. For instance, having Multi-Factor Authentication enabled for some users but not administrators, or having backups that aren't regularly tested, technically ticks the box but leaves significant vulnerabilities unaddressed.

Here’s how to leverage Compliance Scorecard to help your clients build true cyber resilience with the Essential Eight Maturity Model:

Assessments: Use our scorecards to go beyond basic checks, evaluating the effectiveness of controls across assets, policies, and risk.
Maturity Roadmaps: Collaboratively build improvement plans within the platform, focusing on progressive maturity levels that strengthen your clients' long-term cyber resilience.
Policy Documentation: Leverage a rich library of policy documents to establish and easily refine policies for MFA, access controls, and incident response, ensuring they meet increasing maturity level requirements.
Continuous Monitoring: Set up ongoing monitoring and vulnerability scanning through the platform's various integrations to actively measure how well controls are functioning and identify areas needing adjustments.
Comprehensive Reports: Use the platform's reporting features to create easily understandable reports, demonstrate progress over time, and provide auditable evidence of your clients' growing cybersecurity resilience.
Compliance Management: For clients with other compliance obligations, manage their Essential Eight maturity alongside these within the unified platform.
Compliance Scorecard: Designed for maturity

While implementing the Essential Eight controls is a good start to cybersecurity, real security comes from how well you implement those controls. The Maturity Model is your framework for measuring the effectiveness of any Essential Eight program – and continually improving it.

Compliance Scorecard equips MSPs to move beyond basic control implementation, providing a powerful platform to assess, plan, and track their clients' progress. With us, you can offer a truly impactful service that builds lasting cyber resilience for your clients. Want to see how it all works? Schedule your Live Demo today.