Software accreditation to benefit govt departments

CSC Australia has announced its ACT-based laboratory has gained NATA (National Association of Testing Authorities) accreditation for software testing.

NATA offers accreditation in IT testing laboratories and CSC hopes its independent, third-party assessment by NATA will encourage the use of accredited laboratories in the marketplace, which could reduce the likelihood of software failures.

According to CSC ITEST facility manager Tony Hall, the company was able to use the experience obtained from conducting information security evaluations over the last six years to expand its scope of accreditation to include IT testing.

"CSC also saw this as an opportunity to provide independent testing to the federal, defence and corporate sectors within the Canberra region, which was needed to meet market demand," Hall said.

NATA IT testing manager Sherobhi Rajamantri believes that CSC Australia's recent accreditation will allow its customers to have their software independently tested in a NATA accredited laboratory.

"Government departments in Canberra can also use this service to ensure they are purchasing quality software that has been independently tested," Rajamantri said.

The NATA IT testing accreditation program has been developed over the last two years with support funding provided through the Testing and Conformance Infrastructure Program of the Commonwealth Department of Communications, Information Technology and the Arts.

It builds on an earlier development in which NATA became the accreditor of testing laboratories licensed by the Defence Signals Directorate under the Australasian Information Security Evaluation Program (AISEP).