The Australian Defence Forces awarded Canberra-based Penten Services a $2.2 million contract to improve the Australian Army’s cyber capabilities.
The technology required will be used by the Army to send messages over unsecured networks.
Additionally, funding will go towards the construction of cyber-management capability and the improvement of security countermeasures.
In sum, the contract will support the Army to monitor network traffic and mitigate attacks on its network.
Penten is the latest business to be funded through the Defence Innovation Hub.
“Australia benefits from an industrial base of many agile small to medium enterprises like Penten. The Government is committed to investing in Australian jobs and small and medium enterprises to develop our defence industry,” said Minister for Defence Industry Melissa Price.
Only four years old, Penten employs 50 people from its headquarters in Canberra, and creates technologies that protect classified information from sophisticated cyber attacks.
“I congratulate Penten on the work they have done so far in their contribution to our nation’s security, and strongly support the opportunities the Defence Innovation Hub affords to Canberran businesses to contribute to our nation’s Defence,” said ACT senator Zed Seselja.
The Penten projects were awarded as part of Army Innovation Day 2018, which asked for innovative solutions for the next generation Army.
This year’s applications for funding as part of Army Innovation Day have sought solutions to enable the Army’s priority of “network assurance”.