Optus turns into a security provider

Telecommunications giant Optus has launched Australia’s first free security add-on to its ISP service to help protect Australian households and businesses from Web threats from the critical network layer.

Partnering with Finnish security vendor F-Secure, Optus cable and DSL home users are able to download the security package for a complete 12 months subscription at no extra cost.

“Eighty percent of our customers in a recent survey said it is very important to have security provided as part of the service. So we started thinking that maybe this is not an add-on rather it should be mandatory,” said Mark Mulder, general manager content and portals products and delivery at Optus.

Optus is aiming to boost security while also listening to customer demands to keep the process simple and user-friendly, according to Mulder.

According to IDC senior security analyst Patrick Bihammar F-Secure has successfully pursued the ISP partnership approach which has been available in Europe and Asia for some time.

Find out what other industry experts have to say about this partnership in CRN 223 out on 25 June 2007.

optus f-secure security telco