Defence Data Sharing – Submarines
Australian Defence Contractors are leading their global peers by embracing new technologies that allow them to collaborate on large projects without compromising commercial or military secrets.
However, it was not always so.
In defence in particular, the size and scale of projects makes collaboration necessary in order to deliver large scale and nationally significant projects. Such collaboration is a double-edged sword for defence contractors however: how can they collaborate effectively without divulging commercially sensitive information or compromising national security interests?
What Command Hub found was an hierarchical management, where rank was the common ‘see some, see all’ modus operandum, so the first item of business was to convert the system to a ‘need to know’ operation.
Traditional communication methods can prove an unsuitable solution to this challenge. Electronic correspondence, once the bedrock of corporate communication, is often target for cyber-attacks, such as phishing’ and more conventional file-sharing can lack the cryptographic strength necessary to protect sensitive documents and intelligence to the standards required by the Australian government.
Smart defence contractors are overcoming these issues by embracing secure collaboration technologies that avoid such issues.
Secure collaboration tools in 2024
As CEOs and government executives look to the future of defence projects, it’s clear that those who innovate within a strongly fortified digital security framework will be able to gain a competitive advantage. They will exploit agile, encrypted collaborative platforms that empower them to respond to the complexities of modern defence projects with speed, confidence and discretion.
So, what do state-of-the-art secure collaboration tools look like in 2024? There are a number of key elements that set them apart from their conventional, outdated, electronic file sharing peers:
- Secure collaboration platforms can speed up collaboration by providing compliant and convenient systems that remove the need for individual contracting organisations address issues of technical incompatibilities or perform risk assessments of different organisational infrastructures during the bidding or project execution processes
- End-to-end encryption means that both spoken communications and documents can be shared no matter where each party is located and the devices that they use
- Compartmentalisation gives contractors granular control over data access, with custom clearance levels to ensure sensitive information is exclusively within the reach of vetted personnel. This is a significant part of maintaining operational secrecy across the complex nature of defence partnerships.
- Meticulous Audit trails support transparency and mean that everyone using these systems, from government officials to CEOs fully understands the chain of information handling that goes into cross company and organisational collaborations.
Benefits during bidding
Collaboration platforms, such as DealHub, can shine during the bidding process in particular. Managing bids means working with teams of people through a lengthy, painstaking process of gathering and submitting material from each supplier, balancing delicate factors such as:
- Collaborating organisations are competitors at other times
- Participating teams won’t, or can’t, share certain confidential information
- Bids include vast amounts of highly technical information that has to be checked and double checked by specialists in the participating bid teams
- Different organisations and organisational levels will have different information requirements.
Proven collaboration platforms, such as our own CommandHub solutions, now exist to do the heavy lifting for defence contractors for all of these communication requirements. They effectively allow closed networks to align user, content and context by creating ultra-secure content compartments where access is restricted on a ‘need to know’ basis. We extend protection for contractors, beyond merely understanding who is accessing content, by providing an understanding of how it is used and where it is stored, including on mobile devices.
Reputational benefits of modern collaboration communications
The use of modern, robust communication platforms in complex, multi-contractor defence projects is not only operationally efficient but allows participants to leverage these benefits as part of their communications narrative. In an industry where the smallest security issues can be embarrassing blunders for government and participants, tools that aid in secure collaboration are invaluable.
- Secure collaboration platforms can speed up collaboration by providing compliant and convenient systems that remove the need for individual contracting organisations address issues of technical incompatibilities or perform risk assessments of different organisational infrastructures during the bidding or project execution processes
- End-to-end encryption means that both spoken communications and documents can be shared no matter where each party is located and the devices that they use
- Compartmentalisation gives contractors granular control over data access, with custom clearance levels to ensure sensitive information is exclusively within the reach of vetted personnel. This is a significant part of maintaining operational secrecy across the complex nature of defence partnerships.
- Meticulous Audit trails support transparency and mean that everyone using these systems, from government officials to CEOs fully understands the chain of information handling that goes into cross company and organisational collaborations.
Choosing an effective technology platform
Transitioning from legacy systems to ground-breaking secure communication and collaboration is not without its challenges so the careful choice of trusted partner and platform by contractors remains very important. Transition must go beyond just complying with basic statutory regulations and address the strategic needs of collaboration throughout the bidding and project execution processes.
Questions that contractors ask when choosing a collaborator include:
- To what level is the platform solution certified? Our own CommandHub for example is solution is IRAP certified to the Australian Signals Directorate ISM 2020 PROTECTED standard.
- Where is data hosted? For defence projects it is critical that data is standard. All data is wholly hosted and managed in Australia under the Sovereign Cloud Principles for Critical Infrastructure.
- How can data be accessed?Is data readily accessbile to those who are cleared to use it? Can contractors at all relevant levels in the organisation access sensitive content (even on mobile devices) without relying on poorly protected and only single-encrypted browsing? Data should be encrypted multiple times at a minimum
- How is data compartmentalised?The benefits and importance of need-to-know access in defence is obvious. In effective systems even personnel with seniority or high security clearance should only be granted access to specific compartments if they ’need to know’ the contents for their roles.
Companies such as Command Hub allow defence contractors to leverage all of these benefits in project collaboration from the very outset, to gain significant efficiencies and strategic advantage in the delivery of defence projects and can help overcome the implementation challenges of integrating communication between separate communications networks.
Making your defence project a success
Want to know how cross-organisation collaboration in your defence project could be made safer and more efficient? Command Hub has been delivering systems for large scale defence projects for over a decade and would be happy to have a confidential and no-obligation discussion with you about your project requirements. Call us on 03 9653 9585 or contact us to discuss your needs.
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