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Airlock Digital, Penten and Quad IQ are among the latest raft of local cyber security providers to receive funding from the federal government to develop new solutions.
Minister for Industry, Science and Technology, Karen Andrews, revealed on 13 February that 17 industry-led projects were being funded under the second round of the AustCyber Projects Fund.
According to Andrews, tailored ‘cyber fitness’ programs for small businesses are among the projects set to share in $8.5 million of AustCyber funding from the government to strengthen and grow the cyber security sector.
The first round of the cash provided $6.5 million in matched funding to 10 projects as part of a wider push to give Australia an edge in the global cyber security industry.
The AustCyber Projects Fund is a $15 million, three-year initiative designed to help the country's cyber security industry grow both locally and globally. The AustCyber funding is intended to match industry funding for specific projects.
The combined value of projects, including government and private industry investment, provides a total contribution of approximately $35.8 million to growing Australia’s cyber security sector.
At the time of writing, the government had revealed the details of 13 the 17 projects gaining from the second funding round.
Among them, Airlock Digital has been awarded a project to the value of $1.3 million to deliver commoditised Application Whitelisting to managed service providers (MSPs) and smaller businesses.
With AustCyber funding coming in at $650,000, matching industry funding of the same amount, the new cash injection will see Airlock Digital build on its existing enterprise-grade product.
Canberra-based cyber security provider Penten, meanwhile, has been awarded a project to the value of $3.1 million, with $2.3 million coming from AustCyber, to provide fly-away kits to a pilot group of regional small-and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and academia so they can access their own classified IT network on a scalable, multi-tenant service.
At the same time, WorldStack, Penten and TSS Cyber have been awarded a project to the value of $499,102, $225,000 of which is AustCyber funding, to accelerate joint development of a breach detection prototype named HoneyTrace.
Quad IQ, parent company of managed cyber security service provider Slipstream, has been awarded a project to the value of $612,216, $300,000 of which is coming from AustCyber, to develop the Intelligent Trust Evaluation System (ITES), a tool that reduces security vetting time.
“These projects offer a range of innovative, cyber security solutions that will help grow our national cyber security expertise, create more jobs and position Australia as a global leader in this rapidly evolving sector,” Andrews said in a statement.
AustCyber CEO Michelle Price said the growing demand for cyber security products and services provides significant economic opportunity for Australia.
“Supporting cyber resilience across the Australian economy through projects such as these improves our nation’s overall global competitiveness, as well as its security,” she said.
“The field of applications was highly competitive and covered a wide range of areas of cyber capability. AustCyber looks forward to working with the successful recipients and their partners as they deliver on their projects over the next 12 months."
