Published on the 30/04/2014 | Written by Newsdesk
C-suite awareness of data security has soared thanks to Australia’s new privacy regime, ongoing Edward Snowden revelations and Heartbleed, which have combined to whet the appetite for encryption
Government and commerce awareness of the need for greater vigilance with regard to data protection is the result of “something of a perfect storm” according to Senetas chief marketing officer Simon Galbally. He said that until recently many executives had “mistakenly believed fibre was safe”.
Recent events he said had made clear that without encryption, data was vulnerable. Galbally said that Senetas, an ASX listed company which provides highly certified encryption solutions, had in recent times received more direct enquiries about its products than ever before, particularly from the Government sector which was keen to ensure it met mandated standards of data protection.
The commercial sector took more of a risk mitigation approach to data protection according to Galbally. Although the new privacy rules have created penalties of up to $1.7 million for enterprises which fail to properly protect data, Galbally said a regulatory requirement that data breaches be disclosed would have provided greater incentive for proper data protection by the corporate sector.
He said that US and European businesses took a more stringent approach to data protection.
Senetas has however inked a deal with technology solutions provider UXC to provide information security solutions for government and large business. Galbally said that UXC will; “offer the entire range of high speed encrypters through to defence grade encrypters”. The suite of Senetas products currently offers encryption for data transmitted at speeds ranging from 10 Mbits per second to 10 Gbits per second. The company claims it sells the world’s only triple-certified encryptors, compliant with Common Criteria (Australia and international), FIPS (US) and CAPS (UK) standards.
According to UXC managing director Cris Nicolli; “It is often assumed that data networks are inherently safe, but as the list of organisations affected by cyber-attacks continues to grow, it is clear that no company is immune. Data networks are vulnerable to security breaches. To be protected from a data network breach, cyber-attack or innocent routing error, organisations need strong encryption products.
“We expect that our ability to offer an Australian developed and manufactured security solution will be a strong selling point for government and defence agencies as well as corporates across Australia.”
Galbally said that the UXC arrangement was not exclusive, but it was extensive and that UXC would treat Senetas encryption as an “integral part of their core offering”. The arrangement follows an earlier global master distribution deal that Senetas signed last year with SafeNet.
