ACSC Essential EightPCI DSS 4.0

ACSC Essential Eight covers 8% of PCI DSS 4.0

20 of the 249 controls in PCI DSS 4.0 are already satisfied by evidence you collected for ACSC Essential Eight. 229 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.

8%
of the target already covered
20
controls evidenced
229
genuine gaps
0
claims rejected in review

This number is directional. It says how much of PCI DSS 4.0 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.

43 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.

Req 7: Restrict Access by Need to Know3 of 12 evidenced, 9 to do
Req 10: Logging and Monitoring6 of 27 evidenced, 21 to do
Req 2: Secure Configurations2 of 11 evidenced, 9 to do
Req 8: Identify and Authenticate Users5 of 29 evidenced, 24 to do
Req 6: Secure Systems and Software2 of 19 evidenced, 17 to do
Req 11: Test Security Regularly1 of 21 evidenced, 20 to do
Req 12: Information Security Policies1 of 37 evidenced, 36 to do
Req 1: Network Security Controls0 of 19 evidenced, 19 to do
Req 3: Protect Stored Account Data0 of 29 evidenced, 29 to do
Req 4: Protect Cardholder Data in Transit0 of 6 evidenced, 6 to do
Req 5: Anti-Malware0 of 13 evidenced, 13 to do
Req 9: Restrict Physical Access0 of 26 evidenced, 26 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-ADMIN-ML210.2.1.2argued against and upheld
Log all admin actions

Privileged access events are centrally logged, capturing actions by administrative accounts.

E8-ADMIN-ML210.2.1.5argued against and upheld
Log changes to identification and authentication

Privileged user account and security group management events are centrally logged.

E8-APP-ML210.3.2argued against and upheld
Logs protected from modification

Event logs are protected from unauthorised modification and deletion.

E8-UAH-ML310.3.3argued against and upheld
Logs backed up to central server

Logs are centrally collected, which is the central internal log server PCI requires.

E8-APP-ML210.3.3argued against and upheld
Logs backed up to central server

Centrally logged events are protected from unauthorised modification and deletion.

E8-APP-ML310.4.2argued against and upheld
Periodic review of other system component logs

Event logs from non internet facing servers and workstations are analysed in a timely manner.

E8-APP-ML210.4.3argued against and upheld
Exceptions and anomalies addressed

Events are analysed to identify incidents, which are then reported and the response plan enacted.

E8-PATCHOS-ML111.3.1argued against and upheld
Internal vulnerability scans quarterly

Internal operating system scanning runs at least fortnightly, exceeding the quarterly PCI cadence.

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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