CHATCHAI - stock.adobe.com
ATO renews major Macquarie deal
The contract renewal will enable the Australian Tax Office to tap Macquarie’s security operations centre, among other services, to secure its IT environment and protect sensitive data
The Australian Tax Office (ATO) has renewed a major cyber security and datacentre deal with Macquarie Government, the government cyber security arm of Macquarie Telecom.
With the renewal, the ATO will continue to leverage services including Macquarie’s secure internet gateway (SIG), security operations centre (SOC), sovereign datacentre, hyperconverged infrastructure and cloud services.
The slew of services will help to secure the connection between the ATO’s IT environment and the internet, as well as protect the financial, personal and other sensitive data of Australian organisations and citizens.
Since 2019, ATO has been tapping Macquarie’s SIG services to monitor security events, as well as SOC services to triage targeted cyber attacks.
Macquarie’s SOC provides full inspection of internet traffic and content to meet ATO policies, as well as to comply with the Australian government’s Protective Security Policy Framework (PSPF) and Information Security Manual (ISM) controls.
In December 2022, Macquarie Government became the first company in Australia to have both its cloud and datacentre services certified ‘strategic’ by the Digital Transformation Agency (DTA). Its SIG and other cyber security services protect about 42% of federal government staff.
“We’re proud to play a key role in keeping one of Australia’s most fundamental government agencies secure, at a time when Australians are looking for greater assurance that critical government data and the institutions that store and protect it are fully secure,” said Aidan Tudehope, managing director of Macquarie Government.
Read more about cyber security in Australia
- Research by Imperva shows an 81% increase in cyber security incidents in Australia between July 2021 and June 2022, including automated attacks that doubled in frequency.
- The massive data breach that affected more than 10 million Optus customers has cast the spotlight on API security and other factors that contribute to the cyber resilience of organisations in Australia.
- Australia is playing to its strengths in niche areas such as governance and deep tech to punch above its weight in the cyber security industry.
- Australia plans to develop a new cyber security strategy that aims to strengthen the country’s critical infrastructure, among other goals.
In growing its government cyber security capabilities, Macquarie Government has continued to invest in infrastructure and service capabilities, including a significant focus on recruitment.
The company employs over 220 security cleared engineers, leveraging innovations in virtual services gateways, enhanced cyber security tools and secure access service edge (SASE) security. In 2021, it expanded its sovereign datacentre campus in Canberra with the A$17m Intellicentre 5 datacentre.
