Telstra is launch customer for Wynyard's cyber solution

In a NZ$3.2 million deal, Telstra has become the launch customer for the Wynyard Group’s Advanced Cyber Threat Analytics (ACTA) solution, which is designed to seek out cyberthreats inside networks and prevent events that could have a high-consequence financial or reputational impact.

Wynyard CEO Craig Richardson said ACTA is aimed at a market estimated to be worth more than US$1.2 billion and growing at 14% per annum.

“Tools for detecting known threats are plentiful but ACTA fills a gap in the market,” said Richardson.

“ACTA has been keenly anticipated by organisations where a cyber breach could have a catastrophic consequence, and having Telstra as foundation customer is a great endorsement of ACTA.”

ACTA identifies cyber breaches that have compromised traditional defences, providing protection from the never-before-seen threats. It operates inside the company network, rapidly ingesting and processing big data network logs using advanced machine learning techniques to analyse data for anomalous patterns that are out of step with usual behaviour.

Telstra will use ACTA across its internal ICT network to assist in preventing high-consequence cybercrime. ACTA will give Telstra the ability to identify anomalies and unusual patterns within the network, providing a deeper understanding through the discovery of previously unknown threats.

“ACTA will provide Telstra with a powerful intelligence and analytics platform that will allow us to quickly identify and explore key cyberthreats and to contain those first seen cyber issues before they become a serious breach,” said Telstra Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) Mike Burgess.

“A data analytics capability that identifies true ‘unknown-unknowns’ should be a fundamental part of any organisation’s cyber defence,” said Burgess.