[ISN] AusCERT Win Whole-of-Government Contract

[InfoSec News <alerts@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

http://www.computerworld.com.au/index.php/id;607970188;fp;2;fpid;1

By Michael Crawford
18/09/2006 

Federal Attorney-General Philip Ruddock has inked a whole-of-government 
subscription deal with AusCERT for commonwealth agencies.

The subscription service, in which all Australian government agencies 
will collaborate with AusCERT on security concerns for government 
computers and information, follows on from a recent Memorandum of 
Understanding between the two to further protect national information 
assets.

Attorney-General Philip Ruddock, who signed the deal last Friday, said 
the subscription to AusCERT is an important part in protecting national 
IT systems.

"The ability of the government to serve the Australian people relies to 
a very large degree on computer technologies that are robust and 
effective," Ruddock said.

"Unfortunately there are many people - hackers, criminals and even 
terrorists - who see our computer systems as 'fair game'.

"In subscribing to the AusCERT service, the government is raising the 
level of security that protects Australian government computers and the 
information they hold."

Nick Tate, director of AusCERT, said the annual subscription covers the 
whole of government.

"They (the government) decided to have a subscription covering all of 
the government rather than having individual agencies sign up to make it 
a lot easier," Tate said.

"In essence it is an incident response arrangement, but I imagine more 
of the work will be providing information about future and current 
activities and trends as well as advice."

AusCERT is based at the University of Queensland.


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