⚠️ Community-contributed command — not part of the officially-maintained ArcKit baseline. Output should be reviewed by a PSPF-experienced security officer or government accreditation specialist. PSPF is updated via Attorney-General's Department releases — verify version against current AGD publication.
You are an enterprise architect generating a Protective Security Policy Framework (PSPF) compliance assessment for an Australian Government entity or contractor handling government information.
User Input
$ARGUMENTS
Context
The Protective Security Policy Framework (PSPF) is the Australian Government's overarching security policy framework administered by the Attorney-General's Department. It establishes the security policy environment for all non-corporate Commonwealth entities and is increasingly cited in tender requirements for contractors, service providers, and panel members. PSPF compliance is a primary input to DISP attestation and to IRAP scope statements.
PSPF is structured around four security outcomes with 16 core requirements:
- Outcome 1: Security Governance (4 core requirements)
- Outcome 2: Information Security (4 core requirements — ISM is the technical instantiation)
- Outcome 3: Personnel Security (4 core requirements)
- Outcome 4: Physical Security (4 core requirements)
Authoritative anchor: Protective Security Policy Framework — https://www.protectivesecurity.gov.au/
Key references:
- PSPF (current edition) — Attorney-General's Department
- ASD Information Security Manual (ISM) — instantiates Outcome 2
- ASD Essential Eight — minimum cyber baseline supporting Outcome 2
- DISP (Defence Industry Security Program) — adjacent framework
Process
Read prerequisites:
- The project's E8 posture (
ARC-{P}-AUE8-v*) - The project's ISM applicability (
ARC-{P}-AUISM-v*) — primary input - The project's PIA (
ARC-{P}-AUPIA-v*) - The project's RISK artefact
- The project's DIAG artefacts (
ARC-{P}-DIAG-*) — deployment, facility, boundary, and working-off-site evidence - The project's DATA artefact (
ARC-{P}-DATA-v*) — classification, sensitivity, retention, and information-owner evidence - The project's ServiceNow artefact (
ARC-{P}-SNOW-v*) if available — CMDB ownership, support groups, supporting services, incident/change workflows - The project's TRAC artefact if available — core-requirement evidence mappings
- The project's maturity-model artefact if available — security governance capability baseline
.arckit/templates/_partials/RENDERING.md
- The project's E8 posture (
Read the template:
- First:
.arckit/templates-custom/au-pspf-template.md - Then:
.arckit/templates-custom/au-pspf-template.md - Fallback:
.arckit/templates/au-pspf-template.md
- First:
Use
scripts/bash/create-project.sh --json --name "<project-name>"if the project does not yet exist; otherwise locate it.Use
node scripts/generate-document-id.mjs <PROJECT_ID> AUPSPF --filenamefor the artefact filename.Resolve the
<!-- DOC-CONTROL-HEADER -->marker perRENDERING.mdbefore writing the artefact.RENDERING.mdhard-routes the AU regime to_partials/document-control-au.md, which already carries the PSPF classification ladder — no per-command classification override is needed.Generate the following sections:
Entity Profile — entity name, type (non-corporate Commonwealth / corporate Commonwealth / contractor / panel member / state-government with PSPF flow-down), PSPF applicability driver (direct / contractual flow-down), Chief Security Officer (CSO) designation, security maturity self-assessment level.
Outcome 1: Security Governance — assessment of the 4 core requirements:
- CR1: Role of accountable authority (security governance leadership)
- CR2: Management structures and responsibilities (CSO, security committee, executives)
- CR3: Security planning and risk management
- CR4: Security maturity monitoring (Annual Self-Assessment + reporting to AGD)
Outcome 2: Information Security — assessment of 4 core requirements (ISM is the primary instantiation here):
- CR5: Sensitive and classified information (information classification, marking, handling)
- CR6: Access to information (need-to-know, security clearances)
- CR7: Safeguarding information from cyber threats (E8 + ISM)
- CR8: Sensitive and classified discussions and communications
Outcome 3: Personnel Security — assessment of 4 core requirements:
- CR9: Eligibility and suitability (vetting + AGSVA clearance process)
- CR10: Ongoing assessment (continuous suitability)
- CR11: Separation of personnel (off-boarding clearance debrief)
- CR12: Insider threat
Outcome 4: Physical Security — assessment of 4 core requirements:
- CR13: Entity facilities (physical security zones)
- CR14: Working off-site (remote work + travel)
- CR15: Physical security risk
- CR16: Supporting services (cleaning, maintenance, contractor access)
For each Core Requirement document:
- Compliance status: ✅ Fully Compliant / ⚠️ Partially Compliant / ❌ Non-Compliant / N/A
- Evidence supporting status (cite ARC-{P}-AUISM, AUE8, AUPIA, AUDISP where applicable)
- Specific gap description
- Remediation actions with owner and target date
- PSPF Self-Assessment Level achieved (if relevant — Compliant / Substantially Compliant / Partly Compliant / Not Compliant)
PSPF Annual Self-Assessment — for non-corporate Commonwealth entities, document Annual Self-Assessment Report status, last submission to AGD, current self-assessed maturity level, gaps.
Compliance Summary — 16-row table covering all four outcomes; overall PSPF maturity statement.
ArcKit Evidence Integration — map
$arckit-diagram,$arckit-data-model,$arckit-servicenow,$arckit-risk,$arckit-traceability,$arckit-graph-report, and$arckit-maturity-modeloutputs to PSPF outcomes, CMDB ownership, supporting services, annual self-assessment evidence, and remediation tracking.Recommendations — prioritised remediations by Quick Wins / Short-Term / Medium-Term, each tagged to specific Core Requirement.
Populate the External References section per
.arckit/references/citation-instructions.md. PSPF (with edition) MUST appear in the Document Register.Before writing the file, read
.arckit/references/quality-checklist.mdand verify all Common Checks plus the AUPSPF per-type checks pass. Fix any failures before proceeding.Write the artefact via the Write tool to
projects/<project-id>/<filename>.Show only a summary to the user (one paragraph plus the four-outcome compliance summary table).
Important Notes
- PSPF directly applies to non-corporate Commonwealth entities. Corporate Commonwealth entities, state/territory governments, and contractors are not directly bound but commonly inherit PSPF requirements via tender flow-down or direction.
- PSPF Annual Self-Assessment is a hard requirement for non-corporate Commonwealth entities. Reports are submitted to AGD; the report against each Core Requirement uses a 4-level self-assessment (Compliant / Substantially Compliant / Partly Compliant / Not Compliant).
- ISM is the technical instantiation of Outcome 2 Information Security. The recipe should defer to the ISM applicability statement (
ARC-{P}-AUISM-v*) for technical-controls evidence rather than duplicating it. - For Outcome 3 Personnel Security, the AGSVA (Australian Government Security Vetting Agency) is the primary clearance authority. Cleared personnel records reference clearance levels (Baseline / NV1 / NV2 / PV) not individual identities.
- For pure-cloud systems and contractors with no physical facilities, Outcome 4 Physical Security largely inherits from cloud provider IRAP attestations + host-organisation facilities. Document the inheritance explicitly.
- For contractors handling Defence-related work, the PSPF assessment dovetails with DISP attestation — cite the DISP pack where it exists rather than re-evidencing.
- Use embedded ArcKit artefacts as evidence: diagrams for deployment and physical/logical boundaries, data models for classification, ServiceNow/CMDB for ownership and supporting services, risk and traceability for remediation governance, graph-report for coverage, and maturity-model for security uplift.
Suggested Next Steps
After completing this command, consider running:
$arckit-diagram-- Architecture and deployment diagrams support PSPF information, physical, facility, and working-off-site evidence.$arckit-data-model-- Data model evidence identifies information classification, sensitivity, owners, retention, and handling requirements.$arckit-au-ism-controls-- ISM is the technical-controls instantiation of PSPF Information Security outcome — primary input to PSPF Outcome 2.$arckit-au-e8-posture-- E8 supports PSPF Information Security outcome.$arckit-au-pia-- APP 11 + PSPF Personnel Security overlap; PIA cross-reference.$arckit-au-disp-attestation-- DISP attestation pack draws on PSPF compliance evidence.$arckit-servicenow-- ServiceNow/CMDB evidence supports service ownership, supporting services, support groups, facilities dependencies, and incident/change evidence.$arckit-risk-- PSPF gaps and annual self-assessment findings should feed the project risk register.$arckit-traceability-- PSPF core requirements should trace to policies, controls, owners, evidence artefacts, and remediation actions.$arckit-maturity-model-- PSPF self-assessment results can seed security governance maturity uplift planning.$arckit-graph-report-- Graph reporting should show AUPSPF coverage alongside AU compliance, risk, traceability, and operations artefacts.