The Australian Signals Directorate has released a collection of four new hardening guides designed to help government agencies secure their IT environments.
The ASD, which produces advice to help government departments address information security threats, released guides for hardening Microsoft Office 2013 and workstations running Windows 7 SP1 and Windows 8, as well as a guide to securing content management systems.
Earlier this year the ASD updated its primary security guide for government agencies, the Information Security Manual.
The new edition of the ISM contained "major revisions of security measures to ensure better suitability in a 'cloud first' policy environment," an ASD spokesperson told Computerworld Australia at the time.
The release of a new version of the ISM followed the release last year by the government of an updated cloud computing policy.
Under the new policy, when agencies and departments seek to obtain new IT services or replace they must adopt cloud if it is "fit for purpose, provides adequate protection of data and delivers value for money".
As part of the ISM update, the ASD unveiled its certified cloud services list.
Services from Amazon, Microsoft and Macquarie Telecom have so far been added to the list, which is intended to make it easier for government agencies to jump to cloud.