Stratsec

By combining the commercial experience of stratsec with BAE Systems’ defence pedigree, stratsec is able to deliver security services previously unavailable in Australia and the South East Asian region.

With specialist cyber security staff in six locations, and aggressive recruitment and training plans - stratsec is on target for significant growth within the cyber security sector.

The consolidation of security capabilities from both companies gives teeth to the proposition that industry will provide the “boots on the ground” in cyber security in Australia. This will be delivered in close and trusted partnership with those Government agencies that have a cyber security remit.

Nick Ellsmore, stratsec Head of Delivery, recently stated “the cyber threat activity last year has grave implications for cyber security for government and corporations in Australia. Currently the majority of Australia’s critical infrastructure is owned by the private sector, which historically has not needed to prepare for this level of threat”.

Tim Scully, former head of DSD’s Cyber Security Operations Centre and the CEO of stratsec says that, “the acquisition of stratsec by BAE Systems represents another significant step forward in BAE Systems’ global cyber security strategy. At a local level BAE Systems Australia’s Cyber Support Unit (CSU) was merged with stratsec, enabling more research, collaboration, knowledge sharing and increasing capability between the government and business.”

2010 will be remembered internationally in both the corporate and defence ICT security landscapes for a massive increase in the number of cyber threat activities. The world was shown the power of Wikileaks, of commercial cyber espionage with Rio Tinto, and ‘Stuxnet’; which in late 2010 was a highly targeted, highly sophisticated, cyber attack with real-world impact. Systems in over 150 countries were infected by Stuxnet. On top of these events over 20,000,000 malware samples were identified last year.

A change in approach by organisations to cyber security was witnessed in the findings from the international "Cyber Storm III" exercise, and the incident response exercise conclusion stated, "the starting point for the exercise was that the adversary had sufficient time, money and motivation to penetrate any network." This is how government and corporations need to think now – any network can be compromised. To make matters worse, as quoted by the CIA in A Human Capital Crisis in Cybersecurity - Technical Proficiency Matters - A White Paper on the CSIS Commission on Cybersecurity for the 44th Presidency of July 2010, we are facing an under-supply of skilled staff in the highly technical areas of cyber security of 90-95%.

To address these challenges requires both an understanding of commercial imperatives as well as a defence-born mindset. 2011 marks the year that stratsec, through the acquisition by BAE Systems Australia, will provide a level of security services to business previously unavailable and certainly unparalleled.