Amber McEwen (REANNZ)
New Zealand's advanced research network is poised to offer its members access to the National Cyber Security Centre's (NCSC) malware free networks programme.
Research and Education Advanced Network NZ (REANNZ) serves some of New Zealand's largest oganisations, including all of our universities, Crown research institutes, polytechnics, Auckland Museum, Education Payroll, the Ministry of Education and network probe systems developer Endace.
REANNZ said it was working with the NCSC and integration partners to enable it to offer malware free networks (MFN). MFN helps lift cyber security by actively blocking and reporting on advanced persistent threats.
"The nature of the protections offered by MFN require action on both the institutions' own firewall either directly or through an integrator, along with a subset of the protections which can be rolled out across REANNZ’s network," REANNZ CEO Amber McEwen told members in a newsletter today.
"We are currently evaluating potential for a network wide approach and can work with individual members on understanding the approach that works best for them,"
REANNZ also asked members for input to help it understand aggregate demand and to explore options to group buy the service.
As reported by Reseller News three weeks ago, the NCSC is actively pushing its MFN and Cortex security shields out to more organisations after initially focusing on a group of nationally significant ones. On the face of it, REANNZ is a perfect channel for that.
To some extent the NCSC's service expansion was driven by the rapid increase in remote working during the COVID-19 pandemic.
"Organisations need to ensure that they place a top priority on considering and actively managing cyber-security risks of these work arrangements," Bridget White, acting director-general of GCSB, told Parliament's intelligence and security committee in March.
