Brisbane's Baidam Solutions deploys Tenable at University of Queensland

Brisbane-based Baidam Solutions has deployed Tenable’s vulnerability management platform to the University of Queensland.

Tenable’s solution replaced UQ’s previous setup that involved manual and time-consuming scans and had become the full-time responsibility of a UQ IT team member.

The discovery of vulnerabilities has since become automated, giving staff more room to focus on more critical risk and work with senior management on more strategic priorities.

Baidam secured the deployment thanks to its strong relationship with both UQ and Tenable.

Baidam chief executive Phillip Jenkinson told CRN that its relationship with both Tenable and UQ was “pretty cool” with the support the company received during the deployment.

“When we come out and have a celebratory win like this one, it addresses so many different angles rather than just being a security discussion, because they are able to take that business outcome and also translate that into the social outcome,” Jenkinson said.

“We can't do that without our partnerships with Tenable, and we certainly can't do it without a supportive customer base either.”

Baidam also partnered with UQ to offer perpetual cybersecurity scholarships for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students at the university, with the aim of introducing new talent with diverse backgrounds into the cybersecurity sector to combat security challenges.

“Empowering Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders to become cybersecurity professionals will raise the overall standards of security within organisations because it means that a diverse range of views and skills can be applied to address cyber issues,” Jenkinson said.

“The University of Queensland scholarship is a landmark programme that helps ensure increased diversity of thought, background and experience which ultimately benefits the entire industry.”

Commenting on the deployment, UQ deputy director of IT services Dr David Stockdale said, “To secure world-leading research from The University of Queensland, our security team must manage a complex environment made up of tens of thousands of personal devices, vendor partnerships and connections to remote teams and other institutions.

“Our priority, therefore, was finding and fixing vulnerabilities across this expansive attack surface that posed the greatest risk to our mission. We chose Tenable because it is the clear market leader in risk-based vulnerability management.”

Stockdale added that the university had to quickly adopt remote learning technologies and processes last year, so the Tenable deployment helped improve network security. “New vulnerabilities are disclosed every day but we now have a solution in place that can future-proof the university’s security program for the threats of today and tomorrow,” he said.