TL;DR
The NSW Government's 2026–2028 Cyber Security Strategy sets new expectations for cyber risk management, compliance reporting transparency, and third-party supply chain security across all NSW agencies. For organisations that supply into or operate within NSW critical infrastructure, this strategy creates clear downstream obligations to uplift your governance, risk, and compliance (GRC) posture now, not later.
The NSW Government has released its 2026–2028 Cyber Security Strategy, and for the first time, it places third-party supply chain risk and compliance reporting transparency at the centre of the government's cyber agenda. If your organisation works with NSW government agencies, operates critical infrastructure, or sits in their supply chain, this strategy has direct implications for how you manage and report on cyber risk.
In January 2026, NSW Digital published the 2026–2028 NSW Government Cyber Security Strategy, marking a significant shift in how the state government approaches cyber resilience. Previous strategies focused largely on internal agency uplift. This iteration extends the mandate outward, expanding expectations on agencies to actively manage third-party supply chain risk — connectiing government to private sector providers, technology vendors, and critical service operators.
Cyber Security NSW will take an active leadership role in coordinating cyber risk management across agencies, and the strategy explicitly calls for intelligence-led, data-driven decision-making to inform investment and report on compliance outcomes. That means more reporting rigour, more consistency, and more accountability — flowing from agencies down through their entire supplier ecosystem.
Join us in Sydney on 28 April for the 2026 Sovereign AI and Regulatory Assurance Forum, a closed-door executive forum for senior leaders across AI, risk, audit, compliance, and resilience. Register your place at the Sydney Forum.
The strategy identifies critical infrastructure — energy, water, transport, health, and financial systems — as a primary focus. NSW agencies that own or operate critical assets are expected to meet elevated security standards, document their risk posture, and demonstrate ongoing compliance. Organisations that provide services to these agencies face the same scrutiny by extension.
This is the most significant change for public sector organisations. NSW Government agencies must now actively assess, monitor, and report on the cyber security posture of their third-party suppliers. If you are a vendor or service provider to a NSW government entity, expect to be subject to formal cyber risk assessments — and expect those assessments to be recurring, not one-off.
Cyber Security NSW is taking a leadership role in harmonising how agencies report on cyber compliance. The goal is consistent, comparable data across the NSW government portfolio. For agencies, this means investing in the tooling and processes to produce structured, auditable compliance reports — not one-page summaries drafted before a deadline.
The strategy calls for decision-making grounded in real-time cyber intelligence and data-driven risk analysis. This is not a tick-box exercise. Agencies and their suppliers are expected to maintain living risk registers, track threat signals, and use that data to prioritise investment and response.
Critical infrastructure owners and operators using AI in operational technology environments face additional obligations under the SOCI Act. The Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC) released joint guidance in late 2025 with international partners on securely integrating AI into operational technology systems, outlining four principles that critical infrastructure operators are expected to apply.
NSW government agencies
If you are a Chief Information Security Officer (CISO), Head of Risk, or compliance lead inside a NSW agency, this strategy is your operating mandate for the next two years. You will need to demonstrate that your agency has a mature, consistent approach to cyber risk management — and that you can evidence it through structured compliance reporting.
Critical infrastructure operators
Organisations in energy, water, health, and financial services that intersect with NSW government operations face dual compliance pressure: the federal Critical Infrastructure (Security of Critical Infrastructure) Act 2018, already significantly expanded, and now the NSW strategy's additional expectations for state-level reporting alignment.
Private sector vendors and service providers
If your organisation provides technology, managed services, or consulting to NSW government agencies, you are in scope. Agencies will increasingly require suppliers to complete risk assessments, provide evidence of their own GRC maturity, and participate in compliance reporting cycles.
Federal and other state-level spill-over
NSW is Australia's largest economy, and its regulatory signals tend to set the pace nationally. The Commonwealth's own critical infrastructure reforms and Victoria's cyber strategy both trend in the same direction. Organisations that build compliance capability now — rather than scrambling to respond to each new mandate — will be better positioned as these obligations converge.
Getting ahead of the NSW strategy's requirements does not require starting from scratch — but it does require moving beyond spreadsheets and point-in-time assessments.
6clicks is a purpose-built GRC platform designed for government agencies, critical infrastructure operators, and the private sector organisations that work with them. Our platform directly addresses the three pillars of the NSW strategy.
For compliance reporting transparency: 6clicks provides structured, auditable compliance reporting across multiple frameworks — ISO 27001, Essential Eight, NIST CSF, and others — in a single platform. Agencies can produce consistent, comparable reports aligned to Cyber Security NSW's expectations without relying on manual processes.
For third-party supply chain risk: 6clicks' Vendor Risk Management capability enables agencies to issue, track, and analyse supplier risk assessments at scale. Suppliers receive structured questionnaires; agencies receive consolidated risk intelligence — all mapped to their compliance obligations.
For intelligence-led risk management: Our Hub & Spoke multi-entity architecture is specifically designed for organisations that need to manage cyber risk across a distributed portfolio, whether that is a government agency managing multiple directorates, or a managed service provider overseeing a portfolio of public sector clients. Hailey, our AI engine, surfaces risk signals and compliance gaps automatically, enabling the data-driven decision-making the NSW strategy calls for.
What is the NSW Government 2026–2028 Cyber Security Strategy?
The NSW Government 2026–2028 Cyber Security Strategy is a two-year agenda released by NSW Digital in January 2026. It sets out the NSW Government's approach to cyber resilience, with a particular focus on critical infrastructure protection, third-party supply chain risk management, and consistent compliance reporting across all NSW government agencies. Cyber Security NSW leads implementation and coordination.
Does the NSW cyber security strategy apply to private sector suppliers?
Yes — by extension. While the strategy directly governs NSW government agencies, its requirement for agencies to assess and manage third-party supply chain risk means private sector vendors, technology providers, and managed service providers that supply into NSW government will face increasing scrutiny. Agencies will conduct supplier risk assessments and may require evidence of GRC maturity as part of procurement and ongoing contract management.
What is the Essential Eight and is it required under the NSW strategy?
The Essential Eight is the Australian Signals Directorate's (ASD) framework of eight cyber security mitigation strategies considered baseline controls for protecting IT systems. The NSW strategy aligns with federal cyber security guidance, which includes the Essential Eight as a core reference. NSW agencies are expected to demonstrate progress against the Essential Eight as part of their compliance posture.
How does third-party supply chain risk management work in practice?
Third-party supply chain risk management involves systematically assessing the cyber security posture of organisations in your supply chain — the vendors, service providers, and technology partners that have access to your systems or data. In practice, it means issuing structured risk assessments to suppliers, reviewing their responses, rating their risk level, tracking remediation, and repeating the process on a defined cycle.
What GRC tools should NSW agencies use to comply with the strategy?
NSW agencies need GRC tooling that supports multi-framework compliance reporting, vendor risk management, and structured audit evidence — all of which align to Cyber Security NSW's expectations for consistency and transparency. Purpose-built platforms like 6clicks are designed specifically for this use case, enabling agencies to manage compliance across ISO 27001, Essential Eight, and other frameworks without duplicating effort across siloed tools.
Join us in Sydney on 28 April for the 2026 Sovereign AI and Regulatory Assurance Forum, a closed-door executive forum for senior leaders across AI, risk, audit, compliance, and resilience. Register your place at the Sydney Forum.