Applicants seeking entry into the Essential Eight Assessment Course must be either Australian citizens or permanent residents. They must also possess either:

1. A Certificate IV qualification in a technical ICT discipline or greater and a minimum of 2 years of experience in a technical ICT role, OR
2. Four years of experience in a technical ICT role.

Applicants will be vetted to ensure they meet the entry requirements, including verification of their background and experience. You will be required to complete a declaration to support this process.

Prior to the commencement of the Essential Eight Assessment Course, participants are recommended to familiarise themselves with the ACSC’s Essential Eight publications:

• Strategies to Mitigate Cyber Security Incidents.
• Essential Eight Maturity Model.
• Essential Eight Assessment Process Guide.
• Essential Eight Assessment Report Template.

In addition, practice and familiarisation with the following technology platforms (and their use as described in the Essential Eight Assessment Process Guide):

• Microsoft PowerShell, AppLocker, Group Policy Settings and Active Directory.
• Nmap/ZenMap.
• Tenable Nessus.
• The ACSC’s Cyber Toolbox (if you are an ACSC Network Partner).
• Bloodhound.

Participants will complete a supervised, open-book exam at the conclusion of the course. Participants may consult internet resources and are required to use tools and techniques to execute specific tasks on the target machines to answer some of the exam questions.

To maintain the integrity of the exam process, each participant's work must be their own. Collusion with other participants is strictly forbidden. Any infringement of these conditions will result in the participant's disqualification from receiving the completion certificate and they will be ineligible to retake the assessment.

A minimum score of 80 per cent is required to pass the exam. Participants falling short of the 80 percent pass mark may be offered an opportunity to re-sit the exam within a reasonable timeframe, without having to re-enrol in the Essential Eight Assessment Course.

Upon successful completion of the course and exam, participants will be awarded a digital badge.

Participants that successfully complete the course and pass the exam must not state or imply that they are endorsed by ASD or ACSC to conduct Essential Eight assessments. This includes presenting themselves as ‘ASD Essential Eight Assessors’ or ‘ACSC Essential Eight Assessors’ or any other statement that would imply ASD endorsement.

Our course is conducted in a suitable face-to-face instructional environment and includes a specially-designed lab environment. Each participant will be provided with an adequately equipped workstation, complete with the necessary tools required by the course and the capacity to interact with other virtual machines on the same network. This environment is specifically designed to facilitate the operation of the requisite testing tools.

Our team of qualified instructors, possessing a minimum of a Certificate IV Cyber Security qualification or equivalent in a Cyber Security discipline, will deliver the course. Each instructor has at least 5 years’ of industry and/or teaching experience in a related field and has successfully passed the exam.