Vector Technology Solutions (VTS) has entered a partnership with Claroty, enabling it to offer Claroty's complete range of cybersecurity products and services across ANZ.
VTS is a subsidiary of New Zealand's largest gas and electricity distributor, Vector, and the partnership is the first of its kind in the country.
The agreement also makes VTS the first Claroty Managed Security Service Provider (MSSP) Partner in New Zealand, providing managed operational technology security, visibility, vulnerability management and anomaly detection using the Claroty Platform.
The companies explain that while VTS will begin by focusing its efforts on New Zealand's energy sector, it intends to expand its services to a variety of new sectors throughout the ANZ region in the near future.
"Our expertise combined with Claroty's software will give critical infrastructure providers deep visibility into their industrial environments, comprehensive security controls, and actionable insights that allow them to better assess and improve their security posture," says Aaron McKeown, Chief Information Security Officer, Vector.
"Together, we will enable these essential service providers to detect and respond to cyber threats more quickly and effectively than ever before."
Tersia Eaton, Commercial General Manager at VTS, agrees the partnership with Claroty is timely.
"The agreement will assist New Zealand enterprises to counter the ever-growing number and sophistication of cyber threats – and in the coming years, we will be looking to expand our services into new industries across the wider ANZ region," Eaton says.
"We are excited to see where this partnership will take us in the future."
According to New Zealand's National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), incidents affecting nationally significant organisations in 2020-2021 increased by 15% year on year.
Similarly, the Australian Cyber Security Centre noted an increase in cybercrime reports by 13%, with one-quarter of all reports affecting critical infrastructure organisations.
"It will support our goal of expanding our presence in New Zealand, especially in the energy sector, and comes at a time when organisations of all kinds, but especially operators of critical infrastructure, are facing growing threats," says Jason Payne, ANZ Head of Channels & Alliances, Claroty.
Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the acceleration of digital transformation and remote access across all critical infrastructure sectors has compressed years of industrial change into months, leading to significantly heightened cyber risk."
This agreement comes after Claroty entered a partnership with Exclusive Networks.
The partnership will see Exclusive Networks provide Claroty's cybersecurity solutions across the industrial, healthcare, and commercial environments in key APAC markets that include Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Brunei, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Australia, New Zealand, India and Hong Kong.
According to the companies, this partnership will allow Exclusive Networks and Claroty to work together to secure the cyber-physical systems of connected organisations across the industrial, healthcare and commercial sectors.