Remote SupportPass your next audit without the scramble.
CPS 234, ASIC cyber resilience, Privacy Act and cyber insurance renewals are now table stakes. Real Bytes delivers the controls, the documentation and the day-to-day support that keep finance and professional services firms defensible.
Accounting, advisory, legal, broking, AFS licensees, family office and superannuation supply chain. One accountable team across managed IT, cybersecurity and Microsoft cloud.
CPS 234
and Essential Eight aligned by default
BEC
controls hardened across email and identity
MFA
enforced everywhere, no exceptions
24/7
EDR and managed detection coverage
What finance and professional services firms keep telling us
Every CPS 234 conversation and insurance renewal lands on at least one of these.
Business email compromise is the number one financial loss
Spoofed invoices, redirected payments and fake CFO requests cost Australian finance and professional services firms more than any other cyber loss vector. Mailbox rules, MFA bypass and privileged inbox access are the usual root causes.
APRA, ASIC and your insurer all want evidence
CPS 234, ASIC cyber resilience expectations and cyber insurance renewals all ask for the same things: documented controls, MFA everywhere, EDR coverage, immutable backup, patch evidence and a tested incident response plan.
Client trust does not survive a disclosed breach
A notifiable data breach in a finance or advisory practice is not just a compliance event. It becomes a public statement about how seriously you take client data, and the recovery is measured in years.
Your supply chain is now your risk surface
Outsourced bookkeeping, paraplanning, hosted PMS, audit portals, ATO integrations and broker portals. Every third party with access to your data is part of your control environment, whether you formally manage them or not.
From first call to audit-ready, in three stages
What we do and what you do at each step. No surprise project bills.
- 01
Week 1
We review your environment first
A full audit of identity, email, devices, backup and access against CPS 234 and Essential Eight. No changes until we understand what you have inherited.
What you do: You give us admin access and introduce us to your compliance lead.
- 02
Weeks 2 to 8
We fix the high-risk gaps
MFA on every mailbox, EDR on every computer, DMARC enforced, immutable backup tested, payment redirection controls and legacy authentication locked out. Staged so the firm keeps running.
What you do: You approve the remediation plan and we coordinate the changes with your team.
- 03
Ongoing
We keep you audit-ready
Monthly evidence packs, quarterly posture reviews, insurer and regulator questionnaires answered with documented controls. The unglamorous work continues long after onboarding.
What you do: You bring us into renewal and audit conversations. We handle the evidence.
APRA CPS 230 is now a board-level obligation.
CPS 230 Operational Risk Management consolidates five prior standards. Boards are now accountable for identifying critical operations, setting tolerance levels for disruption, testing business continuity annually, and maintaining a material service provider register with credible substitution plans.
The transition period for material service provider contractual requirements ended on 1 July 2026. APRA's targeted amendments to CPS 230, in effect from 1 July 2026, provide limited exemptions for certain material service provider contractual arrangements.
Read the CPS 230 detailed lookCritical operations identified and tolerance levels approved
Workshop the executive team. Approve maximum tolerance levels at full board for disruption duration, data loss, and service degradation under a severe but plausible scenario.
Material service provider register with substitution plans
Hyperscale cloud, core banking, payments, custody, identity providers, managed IT and managed security all typically qualify. The register records the criticality assessment and a credible substitution plan for each entry.
Annual continuity testing across cyber and operational scenarios
Loss of identity provider, ransomware affecting the core platform, material data integrity loss. Findings reported to the board. APRA expects testing to span material service provider failures, cyber events, and wider operational failures.
CPS 234 information security continues alongside
Most entities now run a single quarterly operational resilience board paper covering both standards. A material information security incident is reportable under CPS 234 within 72 hours and is a CPS 230 continuity event if it affects a critical operation.
The services finance firms ask us about most
The frameworks that apply to finance and professional services
APRA CPS 234, Privacy Act and audit-ready evidence. We translate the obligations into a practical control set, implement the technical controls and keep the evidence audit ready.
Frameworks and acts
APRA CPS 234
Information security obligations for APRA-regulated entities and their suppliers.
Privacy Act 1988
Tax File Numbers and credit information have additional handling rules.
ASIC Cyber Resilience expectations
Public statements on cyber resilience for AFS licensees.
ACSC Essential Eight
Increasingly the baseline requested by insurers and auditors.
Operational reality
- Business email compromise is the number one financial loss vector for SMB finance firms.
- Client trust and regulator scrutiny do not survive a breach disclosure.
- Cyber insurance renewals now demand MFA, EDR, immutable backup and patching evidence.
- Third-party and supply chain risk is now a board-level question.
Guides that match this work
Plain-English explainers our team wrote, hand-picked for this sector.
Browse all guidesWhere this sector concentrates
Cities and regions where we already deliver this kind of work day in, day out.
Who we work with at the firm
From the partner room to the front desk, IT and security need to land for every role.
Managing Partner
- Board-ready cyber risk reporting in plain language
- Cyber insurance renewal questionnaires answered with evidence
- Client trust protected by demonstrable controls
- One accountable provider across IT and security
- Predictable monthly spend without surprise project bills
Practice Manager
- Onboarding and offboarding handled cleanly with audit trail
- Email rules and MFA enforced without user resistance
- One support number for any IT or security issue
- Vendor and software changes coordinated centrally
- End-of-month and tax season prioritised support windows
Compliance Officer
- CPS 234 and Essential Eight gap analysis on a single page
- Documented evidence ready for audit at any time
- Third-party and supply chain risk visibility
- Notifiable data breach response runbook tested
- Privileged access controls reviewed quarterly
Client-Facing Adviser
- Email and Teams that work reliably, especially at quarter-end
- Secure file sharing that clients will actually use
- Mobile and laptop access without compromising on security
- Phishing and BEC training your team takes seriously
- Fast resolution when something breaks during a client call
Frequently asked questions
Yes. We map your current technical environment against CPS 234 information security obligations and ACSC Essential Eight maturity. We then deliver the controls and the documented evidence so you can answer auditor and insurer questions with confidence.
MFA on every mailbox, conditional access, mailbox rule monitoring, DMARC, DKIM and SPF properly configured, payment redirection awareness training and EDR coverage. We also lock down legacy authentication and review privileged access regularly.
We help you answer the renewal questionnaire honestly and well. Where there are gaps, we tell you up front and quote remediation. Insurers increasingly insist on MFA, EDR, immutable backup and tested incident response, and we deliver all four as standard.
We support the infrastructure, identity, device and network layer that finance and professional services platforms run on, including Xero, MYOB, Class, BGL, Iress, FYI Docs, NetDocs and most major CRMs. For platform-specific issues we coordinate directly with the vendor.
We move fast. Account isolation, mailbox rule audit, login history review, password rotation and immediate engagement with the bank are all part of our incident response runbook. We document everything so you have a clean record for insurer and regulator notification.
What finance and professional services leaders ask us about Australian cyber and data protection law.
Every answer below is grounded in the live Australian primary source. Links go to the relevant Real Bytes detailed look and the responsible Australian regulator.
CPS 230 Operational Risk Management commenced for most APRA-regulated entities on 1 July 2025 and consolidates five previous standards. The board is now accountable for identifying critical operations, approving tolerance levels for disruption (duration, data loss, service degradation), testing business continuity annually across cyber and operational scenarios, and maintaining a register of material service providers with credible substitution plans. Smaller entities have until 1 July 2026. APRA finalised targeted amendments on 30 April 2026.
Make your firm defensible
A free 30-minute review covering identity, email, EDR, backup and incident readiness. We tell you, in plain English, where your real risks are.
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