What is the most common gap auditors find on MFA-ISM-1401?

Security questions or a second password accepted as the second factor

ACSC Essential Eight Maturity Model (November 2023) · Multi-factor authentication

`MFA-ISM-1401` Multi-factor authentication uses either: something users have and something users know, or something users…

Q: What evidence do auditors commonly ask for on MFA-ISM-1401 Multi-factor authentication uses either: something users have and something users know, or something users…?

Authentication policy listing permitted factor combinations; Evidence that knowledge-only or two knowledge factors are not accepted.

Multi-factor authentication uses either: something users have and something users know, or something users have that is unlocked by something users know or are. Required at Maturity Levels One, Two and Three of the Multi-factor authentication mitigation strategy (Appendices A, B and C); ISM control ISM-1401 in ASD's Essential Eight to ISM mapping (December 2023).

Source: ACSC Essential Eight Maturity Model (November 2023), MFA-ISM-1401. The statement above is our statement of the clause, read from the published text and cited so you can check it against the official text, not the instrument verbatim. Open ACSC Essential Eight Maturity Model (November 2023) in the compliance library.

Each row is an ISM control the maturity model requires, with the maturity levels named in its text. Pick your target maturity level and use the rows for it.

artefacts

held by a system

at each review

hard

to go live

Policy repository / GRC workspace

where the evidence lives

teal = a system already holds it · olive = produced at each review. To go live: easy when half or more of the artefacts are already held by a system, moderate from a quarter to a half, hard below a quarter.

These are the artefacts auditors commonly ask for on this requirement, our guidance rather than text from the standard. Your assessor decides what is sufficient in your context, and asks for samples across the period when a report covers one.

system holds itEvidence a system already holds

none for this control

periodic reviewEvidence produced at each review

Evidence that knowledge-only or two knowledge factors are not accepted · Identity provider / directory

governing documentDocuments that govern the control

Authentication policy listing permitted factor combinations · Policy repository / GRC workspace

First move

No system holds this evidence for you: it is people and documents. Reminders and routing to the owner still save time. Put the document under version control with an owner and review date, and log each review as a record with reviewer and date.

Common gaps auditors find

Security questions or a second password accepted as the second factor

Do this for your whole sheet

Paste the rows you run your controls from and get this mapping for every control at once, with the periodic-review ones flagged and a first move per row. No account for the first run.

Build my evidence sheet

MFA-ISM-1228 Cyber security events are analysed in a timely manner to identify cyber security incidents · MFA-ISM-1504 Multi-factor authentication is used to authenticate users to their organisation’s online services that…