The future of Verizon's relationship with the Department of Human Services (DHS) is unclear with the vendor declining to comment on whether it will re-tender for the expiring secure email services contract it holds with the department.
According to DHS documents, the department is to begin shortly sourcing a new secure email service provider following the impending expiration of its contract with Verizon.
The replacement solution will initially service around 2000 end users within the department, however will likely service considerably more users over time, the DHS said.
“[Tenderers] need to consider that this system may be made available to other DHS portfolio agencies as ICT infrastructure integration activities continue to mature,” the documents read.
Those portfolio agencies are Australian Hearing, Centrelink, CRS Australia and Medicare Australia.
The DHS also said that it had a preference for a system that received secure email traffic and immediately forwarded it over a secure channel to be stored on DHS messaging systems.
The system will also allow self-service or automated reporting on user registration and message volume trends, include intrusion detection and monitoring, and virus detection and removal.
Additionally, the system will include certification of the Solution Design by DSD pre implementation and final certification by of the solution by DSD post implementation and include certification of the facility for the hosting and storage of Australian Government data classified to the PROTECTED level by ASIO T4.