AFP to overhaul antivirus, anti-malware security

21.01.2011
The Australian Federal Police (AFP) is to overhaul its data and systems security shortly, with the deployment of new organisation-wide antivirus and anti-malware suites.

The deployment, due to be completed by June this year, will involve run across five tiers of hardware: Desktops and laptops, stand-alone systems, physical servers, virtual infrastructure, and the AFP's NetApp network attached storage (NAS).

The AFP said it intended to use multiple vendors for its antivirus and anti-malware deployments, especially between its server-based and desktop environments. Despite this, each product will be capable of being managed centrally with timely detailed reporting and alerts to the AFP.

"It is not intended that one application vendor be successful in addressing all facets of the computing environment; therefore solutions are expected to include best-of-breed for a defence in-depth outcome," the documents read.

"To achieve this outcome the AFP will consider solutions that provide for all tiers, or any combination of all tiers."

The AFP said it would consider the use of applications which would enable VMware-based virtual servers to off-load AV scanning to the hypervisor.