Macquarie Telecom Group, announced that its cloud services have been ‘Certified Strategic’ by the Digital Transformation Agency (DTA) under its Hosting Certification Framework. This makes Macquarie the first firm to have all its data centres and cloud services Certified Strategic, a key feature of the DTA’s Whole-of-Government Hosting Certification Framework.
How has Macquarie thwarted attacks on govt agencies?
It follows the certification of Macquarie’s Data Centre portfolio last year, which includes facilities in Canberra and Sydney. The certification comes as the Australian Govt increases its focus on data security via policy initiatives including the National Data Security Action Plan, the REDSPICE project, the Hardening Government IT Initiative, the Privacy Legislation Amendment, and wider plans to reform the nation’s cybersecurity and privacy regulation.
Macquarie has observed a sharp rise in attempted government cyber-attacks in recent months. Providing cyber security services to over 40% of the Federal Government, Macquarie protects a threat surface of over seven billion digital interactions every day.
The DTA Certified Strategic designation follows Macquarie recently becoming a member of the VMware Sovereign Cloud initiative, which helps clients engage with trusted national and regional cloud service providers to meet their unique sovereign cloud requirements.
What does the certification mean for Macquarie?
Aidan Tudehope, Managing Director Macquarie Government, says stringent certification processes like the DTA’s Hosting Certification Framework help take the guesswork out of Govt agencies safeguarding data. “As cyberattacks grow in frequency and sophistication, Aussies’ cyber security industry is scaling up to meet the challenge of protecting us,” he said.
“The DTA is simplifying and de-risking the decision-making process on cloud, data storage and data hosting by providing agencies clear guidelines on the security credentials, capabilities, and the ownership and controls present among cloud and data centre providers. It’s a vital mechanism to bolster our nation’s cyber security posture,” commented Aidan Tudehope.
“The value of data and the attack surface area have increased sharply, incentivising the rise in activity we’re seeing. We’re proud to have over 200 security-cleared staff who can work with sensitive govt data. This puts us on the frontline protecting Australian government customers from unique threat patterns which are designed specifically to target them,” added Tudehope.
“Looking forward, as Australia continually assesses its cyber posture, data sovereignty – the jurisdictional control or legal authority that can be asserted over data due to its physical location – must remain a top priority. To secure Australian data, we need to know where it is, who can access it, and who holds authority over it, plain and simple,” said Tudehope.
