ACSC Essential EightCIS Controls v8

ACSC Essential Eight covers 19% of CIS Controls v8

29 of the 153 controls in CIS Controls v8 are already satisfied by evidence you collected for ACSC Essential Eight. 124 are genuine gaps. Every claim below was judged against both control sets and then argued against; the ones that did not survive are published further down with the reason each failed.

19%
of the target already covered
29
controls evidenced
124
genuine gaps
0
claims rejected in review

This number is directional. It says how much of CIS Controls v8 your ACSC Essential Eight evidence satisfies. The reverse pair is a different number, often very different, because a security standard has enormous depth for access control and almost none for lawful basis or data subject rights.

51 candidate mappings were examined and 0 were removed. Signed off 2026-08-19, review level machine verified. Mappings were judged by Claude Code rather than read line by line by a practitioner. Every claim shows its reasoning so you can check it. Ask and a practitioner will review this pair.

Where the gaps are

Coverage is never evenly spread. A source standard usually satisfies one part of a target almost completely and barely touches another, and which part is which is the thing worth knowing before you plan the work.

CIS Control 7: Continuous Vulnerability Management6 of 7 evidenced, 1 to do
CIS Control 2: Inventory and Control of Software Assets5 of 7 evidenced, 2 to do
CIS Control 11: Data Recovery3 of 5 evidenced, 2 to do
CIS Control 5: Account Management3 of 6 evidenced, 3 to do
CIS Control 6: Access Control Management3 of 8 evidenced, 5 to do
CIS Control 9: Email and Web Browser Protections2 of 7 evidenced, 5 to do
CIS Control 8: Audit Log Management3 of 12 evidenced, 9 to do
CIS Control 12: Network Infrastructure Management2 of 8 evidenced, 6 to do
CIS Control 10: Malware Defenses1 of 7 evidenced, 6 to do
CIS Control 4: Secure Configuration of Enterprise Assets and Software1 of 12 evidenced, 11 to do
CIS Control 1: Inventory and Control of Enterprise Assets0 of 5 evidenced, 5 to do
CIS Control 13: Network Monitoring and Defense0 of 11 evidenced, 11 to do
CIS Control 14: Security Awareness and Skills Training0 of 9 evidenced, 9 to do
CIS Control 15: Service Provider Management0 of 7 evidenced, 7 to do
CIS Control 16: Application Software Security0 of 14 evidenced, 14 to do
CIS Control 17: Incident Response Management0 of 9 evidenced, 9 to do
CIS Control 18: Penetration Testing0 of 5 evidenced, 5 to do
CIS Control 3: Data Protection0 of 14 evidenced, 14 to do

Theme level, not control level, deliberately. The per-control list of what is evidenced and what is a gap is the report itself, so publishing it here would be publishing the thing being sold.

Claims that held

A sample. Each one names the control whose evidence does the work, the control it satisfies, and why.

E8-UAH-ML2CIS-10.5argued against and upheld
Enable Anti-Exploitation Features

ASD hardening guidance for browsers and Office mandates the anti exploitation settings CIS lists.

E8-BACKUP-ML1CIS-11.1argued against and upheld
Establish and Maintain a Data Recovery Process

Backups performed and retained against business criticality and continuity requirements, with restoration scope defined.

E8-BACKUP-ML1CIS-11.2argued against and upheld
Perform Automated Backups

Backups of data, applications and settings are performed and synchronised to a common point.

E8-BACKUP-ML1CIS-11.5argued against and upheld
Test Data Recovery

Restoration from backups is tested as part of disaster recovery exercises.

E8-PATCHOS-ML3CIS-12.1argued against and upheld
Ensure Network Infrastructure is Up-to-Date

Network device operating systems patched within defined windows and only current or previous releases used.

E8-ADMIN-ML3CIS-12.8argued against and upheld
Establish and Maintain Dedicated Computing Resources for All Administrative Work

Secure Admin Workstations and jump servers are dedicated computing resources for administrative work.

E8-PATCHAPP-ML3CIS-2.2argued against and upheld
Ensure Authorized Software is Currently Supported

Applications no longer supported by vendors are removed, which is the supported software requirement.

E8-APP-ML2CIS-2.3argued against and upheld
Address Unauthorized Software

Blocklist plus allowlist on servers and workstations prevents unauthorised software running, with annual ruleset validation.

Claims that did not hold

Nothing proposed for this pair was rejected in review. That is unusual and worth knowing rather than hiding: it means the candidate set was small and every candidate held.

The full report

Everything above is a sample. The report is every evidenced control and every gap, with the reasoning and the source document behind each one, in a form you can hand to an assessor. $299, emailed immediately.

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