In plain English
IRAP is the formal accreditation that authorises security professionals to assess whether Australian government systems meet the required security standards. If your organisation hosts, processes, or accesses government data, you may need an IRAP assessment to demonstrate compliance.
Full definition
IRAP assessors are certified by the and must adhere to strict ethical and professional standards. They assess ICT systems against the controls in the Information Security Manual (ISM) and produce formal reports that government agencies use to make risk-based decisions about cloud services, contractors, and technology platforms.
IRAP is commonly required for cloud service providers seeking to host government workloads (under the Hosting Certification Framework), as well as for organisations seeking to supply to government agencies with elevated security requirements.