BUSHEY
Data Protection and Regulatory Readiness Assessment
Data Protection & Regulatory Readiness

From Exposure to Evidence.

An expert-led assessment of your data protection posture, examining controls, regulatory obligations, and incident readiness, and delivering a clear advisory roadmap.

Privacy Act / APPs Essential Eight ISO 27001 / 27701 GDPR
1,205

breaches in Australia in 2025 — an all-time high

OAIC, 2025
$4.22M AUD

Average cost of a data breach in Australia

IBM Security, 2026
48%

of breaches involved a third party up 60% year-on-year

Verizon DBIR, 2026
62%

Of breaches involved a human element or mishandled data

Verizon DBIR, 2026
Why this assessment matters

Compliance is a posture, not a checkbox.

Most organisations have a privacy policy and some form of data governance documentation. Far fewer have tested whether those controls hold up under a real regulatory inquiry, a notifiable data breach notification, or a formal audit under the Privacy Act 1988.

The Bushey Data Protection & Regulatory Readiness Assessment is an independent, expert-led evaluation of your organisation's current state. Our advisors examine how sensitive data is discovered, classified, handled, protected, and governed, mapping every finding against the regulatory frameworks your organisation is required to meet.

The outcome isn't a generic checklist. It's a precise picture of where you stand, where your exposure lies, and what your organisation needs to do next, advised by Bushey's Cybersecurity Practice and anchored in the specific obligations that apply to your industry and jurisdiction.

"We regularly work with organisations that believe they're compliant with the Privacy Act because they have a privacy policy on their website. The assessment reveals a very different picture, particularly around data discovery, third-party exposure, and notifiable breach readiness." Bushey Cybersecurity Practice
What the assessment examines

Six dimensions. One complete picture.

Our advisors examine your data protection posture across six critical dimensions, each assessed independently and mapped to the frameworks applicable to your organisation.

01
Dimension 01

Data Discovery & Classification

Where your sensitive data lives, how it moves, and how it's classified. Our advisors examine data at rest and in motion across endpoints, cloud services, email systems, and shared storage, identifying what your controls can and cannot see.

02
Dimension 02

Policy & Controls Review

A detailed advisory review of your existing data protection policies, access management controls, encryption practices, and DLP configurations, assessed against current regulatory requirements and aligned to your existing Bushey services where applicable.

03
Dimension 03

Regulatory Mapping

Your controls and practices are mapped by our advisors directly to the Privacy Act / APPs, Essential Eight, ISO 27001/27701, and any applicable GDPR obligations, surfacing specific gaps by framework and identifying which obligations are unmet.

04
Dimension 04

Incident Response Readiness

An assessment of your notifiable data breach procedures, response capability, and notification timelines. We examine whether your organisation can realistically contain and report a breach within the 30-day obligation window under the NDB scheme, before a real incident tests it.

05
Dimension 05

Third-Party & Supply Chain Risk

An evaluation of how your vendors, cloud providers, and supply chain partners handle your organisation's data, including data processing agreements, security attestations, sub-processor visibility, and contractual protections in place.

06
Dimension 06

Risk Prioritisation & Advisory

Every finding is assessed by likelihood and business impact. Our advisors produce a weighted risk register and provide clear advisory on what to address first, what can be scheduled, and where interim controls can reduce exposure while remediation is underway.

Regulatory coverage

Every applicable standard, assessed in a single engagement.

Rather than commissioning separate compliance reviews, our assessment covers all four frameworks together, giving your leadership a unified advisory view of where obligations are met and where they aren't.

Australia

Privacy Act 1988 & Australian Privacy Principles

Assessment against all 13 Australian Privacy Principles (APPs), the Notifiable Data Breaches (NDB) scheme, and the Privacy Act 1988, including the substantive reforms from the 2024 Privacy Act Review where applicable to your organisation.

How the engagement works

From first conversation to final briefing.

A structured, consultant-led engagement designed to be low-disruption for your team and high-signal in its outputs.

1

Scoping & Stakeholder Alignment

Our advisors work with your team to define the scope of the engagement, identifying which systems, data types, business units, and jurisdictions are in scope, and establishing which stakeholders need to be involved. No assumptions made; scope is agreed before work begins.

1–2 hours · Initial engagement
2

Evidence Gathering

A combination of structured stakeholder interviews, documentation review, and where appropriate, technical data discovery, covering policies, contracts, architecture, access logs, and existing control documentation. Conducted with minimal disruption to day-to-day operations.

1–3 days · On-site or remote
3

Assessment & Advisory Analysis

The Bushey Cybersecurity Practice team analyses all findings against the applicable regulatory frameworks, assessing your controls against each standard and identifying gaps by severity, likelihood, and regulatory consequence. No finding is presented without supporting evidence.

2–5 business days · Advisor review
4

Report Delivery

Delivery of a full written advisory report, produced in both an executive summary and a detailed technical findings version, accompanied by a prioritised remediation roadmap and gap register. Clear, specific, and written for both leadership and technical audiences.

Within 5 business days of assessment completion
5

Executive Briefing

We present findings directly to your leadership team, walking through each risk area in plain language, explaining the regulatory significance of key findings, and discussing the remediation roadmap together. Questions answered, priorities aligned, next steps agreed.

90-minute advisory session
What you receive

Concrete advisory outputs. Actionable findings.

Lead deliverable

Full advisory report

A structured written assessment covering all findings, in both an executive summary for leadership and a detailed technical version for your security and IT teams.

Regulatory gap register

A structured record of every identified gap, mapped to the specific framework control, assessed by risk severity, and annotated with our consultants' advisory guidance.

Prioritised remediation roadmap

A sequenced action plan ranked by risk reduction potential, with clear guidance on what to address immediately, what can be scheduled, and where interim controls reduce exposure.

Executive briefing session

A 90-minute presentation of findings to your leadership team, conducted by the lead advisor. Not a handover call, a proper advisory discussion with time for questions and priority-setting.

30-day follow-up advisory call

A complimentary check-in session one month after delivery to discuss early remediation progress, answer questions that have arisen, and review any changes in your environment.

Built for your board, your legal team, and your engineers.

A common failure of compliance assessments is producing a single technical report that sits unread on a drive because leadership can't interpret it, or an executive summary so high-level that the security team can't act on it.

The Bushey assessment deliberately produces two versions of every report: an executive summary written for board-level and legal audiences, and a detailed technical findings document designed for your security, IT, and compliance teams. Both versions reference the same findings, presented for the audience that needs to act on them.

Every recommendation in the roadmap is linked back to the specific regulatory obligation it addresses, so your organisation can demonstrate to regulators not just that remediation occurred, but why each action was prioritised.

For the board & legal

Executive summary

Written for board-level and legal audiences, so leadership can interpret the findings and set priorities without a technical background.

For security, IT & compliance

Detailed technical findings

Designed for your security, IT, and compliance teams, referencing the same findings as the executive summary so both audiences act on one source of truth.

Get Started

Ready to know where you actually stand?

Speak with the Bushey Cybersecurity Practice. We'll take time to understand your environment and confirm whether this assessment is the right engagement for your organisation before you commit to anything.