Cybercrime targeted by Vodafone response centre

A Cyber Defence and Response Centre (CDRC) will be built as part of deal between Vodafone Hutchison Australia, Dimension Data and FireEye.

The multimillion-dollar CDRC will be designed to protect Vodafone and its customers against online security threats.

“Cybercrime is a topic that we take very seriously at Vodafone. We have partnered with the industry’s best providers to help us protect our critical information and infrastructure, as well as intellectual property,” said Kevin Millroy, Vodafone chief technology officer.

“The capabilities, maturity, flexibility and scalability of Dimension Data and FireEye enables us to be ready and open to exchange threat information and knowledge with the federal government’s Australian Cyber Security Centre and ultimately contribute to protecting Australia’s national security and economic prosperity from online threats.”

The centre, which will be powered by Dimension Data and FireEye’s global network of advanced security operations centres, will provide around-the-clock advanced event monitoring, threat protection and intelligence, and incident response.

The CDRC service portfolio includes proactive threat hunting that involves actively looking for potential threats before an attack occurs; global threat intelligence correlation and working closely with government agencies and industry partners to identify any global threats; threat subscriptions that are focused on cybercrime and critical infrastructure; and vulnerability management that involves the proactive discovery and remediation of any security weaknesses.

In addition, it focuses on ethical hacking by systematically attempting to penetrate existing systems to exploit vulnerabilities; incident response to address and manage recovery following an attack; digital forensics capabilities including obtaining, analysing, identifying and preserving details involved in an attack; and crisis management assistance in the aftermath of an attack.

FireEye’s regional director for Australia and New Zealand, Richard Metcalfe, said Australian organisations are increasingly recognising the significant risks posed by online attacks.

“These risks confront organisations of all sizes, and it’s critical we collectively improve our defences against these attacks,” said Metcalfe.

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