Home Affairs explores secure service edge

The Department of Home Affairs is looking to adopt secure service edge (SSE) as part of efforts to modernise its security perimeter.

The department is looking for a “scalable, contemporary” secure gateway that it envisions will form a “pathway to the adoption of other SSE functions”.

In the short term, Home Affairs is focused on web proxy capabilities, as well as limited functions around cloud access security broker (CASB) and data loss prevention.

However, Home Affairs is open to embracing the entire spectrum of SSE offerings in the future, including full CASB and zero trust network access.

“The department is seeking to modernise and futureproof its perimeter security services with adoption of SSE,” Home Affairs said in a request for tender.

“As part of this we are looking for a contemporary and effective secure web gateway service...the department is seeking a new secure web gateway solution that will need to be resilient, robust and focused on ensuring minimal impact on the department’s... business needs.”

According to the tender, the legacy gateway hosts up to 18,000 users at any one time and facilitates several cloud hosted applications.

Although currently based on-premises, Home Affairs envisions the future solution will include a cloud-based gateway with a deployed on-premises version.

The tender follows Home Affairs’ recent guidance for federal government agencies to consolidate several IT infrastructure policies, starting with gateway technology and cloud services.

Known as the Resilient Digital Infrastructure (RDI) framework, the technical guidance’s first iteration covered gateways - including internet and email - as well as SSE technology.