ATO Renews Cyber Security Contract with Macquarie Government

The Australian Tax Office (ATO) has extended its cybersecurity support deal with Macquarie Government at a cost of $32.7 million. The secure internet gateway (SIG) and cybersecurity services contract has been extended until December 2024 and the total cost of engagement has now reached $86.1 million. Macquarie Government has been the ATO’s SIG provider since 2019, providing a full inspection of internet traffic, triaging targeted attacks, and offering sovereign data centres, hyper-converged infrastructure, and cloud services to support the secure management of ATO’s IT environment and internet connection. 

Hacking attempts on the ATO’s system have significantly increased over the last five years with around three million attempted hacks every month. Macquarie Government managing director, Aidan Tudehope, said the deal will help keep the ATO secure, as 42% of all federal government staff have SIG and other cybersecurity services provided by Macquarie Government. 

The new contract comes six weeks after Macquarie Government became the first company to have both its cloud and data centre services certified to the ‘strategic’ level by the Digital Transformation Agency. The certification provides the highest level of assurance under the government’s data sovereignty scheme known as the Hosting Certification Framework. Other certified cloud and data centre providers include Amazon Web Services, Google, and IBM, among others. 

A version of this article was first published by PRWire.