Betrusted has tightened its stranglehold in the Australian security solutions industry following the announcement by South Australian-based TXU that it has selected the vendor to consult on implementing security services.
TXU, provider of gas and electricity to more than one million South Australian homes, manages $4 billion worth of assets and some 8000 kilometres of gas pipes statewide. It employs more than 2000 people around Australia and was formed as part of the sale of five distribution utilities developed from Eastern Energy in 1995 when the government privatised the industry.
Betrusted, funded by US banking giant Bank One, has been cementing its prominence in the Australian security industry within the last year after the acquisition of managed network security provider 90East, Australia's only remaining IT security provider to the federal government, according to officials.
Betrusted CEO John Garvey said the company is firmly committed to Asia-Pacific expansion, particularly in the utilities market for its managed security services offerings. Currently, 80 to 85 percent of the company's business in the region is from Australia.
Betrusted principal consultant on the TXU project, Andrew Walls, has taken a standardized approach to ensure quick results and a consistency in assessing the predictability of systems.
While TXU had strict security policies already in place, company spokesman Stuart Shaw said the utility wanted to assess procedures to identify what is and isn't effective.
"SecureNet performed the initial assessment in the fourth quarter of last year and reviewed 10 recommendations of which we are going forward with four. Three of these security recommendations have been performed by Betrusted on behalf of the organization," he said.