Victorian Government Cyber Maturity Benchmark

The Victorian Government Cyber Maturity Benchmark is an annual self-assessment of baseline cyber security controls across the Victorian Government.

The State Government of Victoria established its first baseline of cyber risk maturity in September 2021. The baseline is made up of data from 100 Victorian public sector organisations and will be used to inform improvements that bolster the defences of Victorian Government networks against current and emerging cyber threats. The Benchmark delivers on the Victorian Cyber Strategy 2021 Mission 1: The safe and reliable delivery of government services.

The Benchmark assessment

The assessment uses the current Australian Cyber Security Centre’s Essential Eight Maturity Model.

“Implementing the Essential Eight proactively can be more cost-effective in terms of time, money and effort than having to respond to a large-scale cyber security incident”. (ACSC 2021)

You can read more about the current Essential Eight model in the ACSC FAQs.

The Benchmark self-assessment can help you:

• review and understand the maturity of your organisation’s baseline cyber controls
• produce reports that can be used to make decisions about investment in cyber security improvements
• support Victorian Protective Data Security Standard (VPDSS) attestation for Standard 11: ICT Security by providing information about technical controls
• compare your organisation’s cyber maturity against a whole-of-government benchmark or selected sectors.

The benchmark also helps the Victorian Government Cyber Safety Unit and VMIA to understand cyber maturity across the Victorian public sector, and to make informed, data-driven decisions about how to improve the State’s cyber security and recovery.

Accessing the Benchmark self-assessment

If you’re accessing the Benchmark for the first time, enter your organisation name in full (no abbreviations) in the field below, then choose your organisation’s name from the dropdown list . View our terms of use [PDF, 563KB].

You’ll be transferred to our self-assessment hub which hosts:

• Victorian Government Cyber Maturity Benchmark
• Risk Maturity Benchmark

This video explains how to complete the self-assessment and answers the most common questions.

We recommend following the video as you’re completing the self-assessment for an in-depth walkthrough or clicking the chapters below to skip to the relevant sections.

Chapters:

00:42 Accessing the Benchmark assessment
01:20 Completing an assessment
03:24 Viewing results and benchmarking
04:11 Generating reports
04:45 Understanding different user roles
05:19 Performing admin requests

User instructions

• Cyber Maturity Benchmark User Instructions [PDF, 2.35MB]

Extra resources

• Australian Cyber Security Centre information
• Cyber security in the Victorian Government
• Victoria’s Cyber Strategy 2021
• Essential 8 Benchmark updates [PDF, 595KB]

How will the Benchmark data be used?

The Cyber Maturity Benchmark data will help you review and plan improvements to your cyber security controls. The Victorian Government Chief Information Security Officer recommends organisations implement the Essential Eight mitigation strategies as a baseline to prevent cyber incidents, mitigate the damage they cause, and recover from more efficiently and effectively.