Telstra has announced the extension of its world-class range of tailored security solutions for the Government with the introduction of Sovereign SecureEdge and Cyber Detection and Response capabilities that will help strengthen the country’s cyber defences.
This announcement comes as Telstra bolsters its commitment to provide expertise and specialist services to all levels of Government by creating a specialist Government team.
Telstra Enterprise’s Group Owner, Government, Nicole McMahon said the company has had a long and productive history of partnering with the Government and protecting Australians and their interests.
“COVID-19 has rapidly accelerated digital adoption, including more digital Government services. This creates huge opportunities for communities – particularly those in rural or remote locations,” Ms McMahon said.
“However, it can also present significant security challenges given the sophistication and rising number of cyber-attacks on Australian organisations, which now cost the economy more than $3 billion each year.”
Telstra’s new capabilities will help secure the digitisation of Australia’s economy and meet the Australian Government’s commitment to providing access to all government services digitally by 2025.
“As we recover from the pandemic, reliance on digital services will remain critical, so it’s important that we secure and protect our digital environment, as disruptions due to cyber attacks could significantly impact the economy and its’ recovery,” Ms McMahon said.
Telstra’s capability to protect, detect and respond to cyber threats, along with their visibility of threats from operating the largest and most complex network in Australia, uniquely positions the company to be able to act on cyber issues in real-time.
The Cyber Detection and Response capability is built on the same security operations centres that are trusted by organisations across Australia.
It integrates with Government systems, endpoints and cloud services to monitor the vast landscape of cyber threats using big data analytics from Telstra’s managed security service platform.
Meanwhile, the Sovereign SecureEdge helps customers implement more stringent compliance measures without the complexity and cost of having to build the functionality from scratch.
Through cloud architecture, the Sovereign SecureEdge also helps to reduce latency and limitations that often come with more complex perimeter-based security solutions.
With Telstra’s enhanced cyber security solutions are designed and built based on Government requirements, the new Sovereign SecureEdge and Cyber Detection and Response capabilities add to a suite of secure services that is already provided.
Beyond these tailored solutions for Government, Ms McMahon said Telstra was continuing to boost security at the network level to protect consumers and organisations from increasing cyber security threats.
“As part of our Cleaner Pipes initiatives we’re now blocking 13 million scam voice calls on average per month, and more than 100 million scam calls have been blocked since we started this work,” she said.
“We’re also ramping up efforts to filter and block scam SMS messages with new technology following a successful trial with Services Australia and are using Domain Name System (DNS) and other filtering techniques to reduce the harm caused by scam websites.”
Telstra’s Sovereign SecureEdge and Cyber Detection and Response capabilities will be available for the Australian Government in the coming months.
Source: Telstra Media Release