Red Piranha Looking to do More Business in Asia
Red Piranha has been building and deploying defence-grade security solutions since 2018 and has been working with the Australian defence sector for much of the time. It is part of Team Defence Australia, which makes Red Piranha a licensed Defence Exporter.
Australia-based Red Piranha is a cybersecurity products and services company which has a global presence servicing large and small clients and partners across multiple industry sectors.
Ahead of the World Defense Show in Saudi Arabia, Adam Bennett, Founder and CEO, Red Piranha, spoke to Arabian Defence. He said Red Piranha has a close affinity with the Asia region, and the company is looking to do more business, especially once the pandemic eases. He added that they are planning to grow their team further in India and are looking forward to doing much more in the country. The company has partners in the Middle East.
- Red Piranha is very active in the Australian defence ecosystem. Could you tell us more about this involvement?
Red Piranha has been building and deploying defence-grade security solutions since 2018 and have been working with the Australian Defence sector for much of that time. We are proud members of Team Defence Australia, which makes us a licensed Defence Exporters. Our products feature in the Australian Defence Sales Catalogue and have won finalist awards for Cyber Security Business of the Year. We are DISP certified, and provide solutions and advice on gaining certification, along with the cyber capability to secure an organisation’s place within Australian Defence ecosystem. This requires several security outcomes that must be met to maintain membership and supply endorsement. Red Piranha’s security platform, Crystal Eye, and our strategic ownership along the entire cyber security value chain, allows us to provide a full-stack solution with on-demand access to our village of specialist security resources. For our clients, this takes the pain and cost out of achieving assurance through programs like DISP certification.
-
As one among the only two Australian cyber security companies who are part of Team Australia Defence, Red Piranha enjoys numerous export opportunities for its products such as Crystal Eye XDR. What are the firm’s major export products and who are the important customers?
We predominantly work with the 2nd tier supply chain, which is where we see critical gaps that need to be addressed. Many know they need to improve their capabilities, but simply don’t have the resources of primary suppliers that require assurances. For an organisation to put an effective security program in place, it typically takes significant expertise just to make the different components work together. This leaves less resources for actually carrying out threat containment, let alone governance. So, on top of that integration, organisations still need to hire all the specialists that carry out the vulnerability testing, digital forensics, as well as find people who understand threat intelligence gathering techniques and technologies.
This is where the Crystal Eye XDR platform and the eCISO® program come in. One provides full-stack integration and rapid deployment of threat capabilities, while the other sures up governance measures through a defined methodology that can be adapted to any given quality standard or industry framework. Simply put, we address essential controls like training, network segmentation, access control, incident response, vulnerability testing, and monitoring, so that this becomes their base camp. From there it is about maturing defensive capabilities relative to the customer’s risks and assurance requirements.
-
Red Piranha has taken part in the ASEAN Cyber Security Mission. Could you give details?
Working with both Austrade and the Australian Defence Force, we have been on numerous cyber security missions over the last few years. More were planned but as everyone understands the pandemic has posed a range of logistical problems. Prior to the pandemic, we participated in trade missions to both Singapore and Indonesia and were a part of the free-trade proceedings between Indonesian and Australian governments.
This year we look forward to the many ASEAN cyber security missions scheduled across Malaysia and Singapore, Qatar, India, Japan, and more of course.
-
Among the crucial roles of Red Piranha, one is related to the Henderson Alliance. Could you elaborate?
The Henderson Alliance is predominantly centered around Western Australia’s shipbuilding industry. The industry builds nearly a quarter of the ships for the US. The alliance is an agglomerated economy comprised of small and medium enterprise suppliers that manufacture for the defence sector. Predominantly naval, but now also in aviation.
Being a part of the Alliance ourselves, allows us to not only work with Defence primes, but right across the supply chain, which is the most important thing, for when it comes to security you are only as strong as your weakest link. Essentially, you need assurance all the way down. It is an interesting ecosystem with diverse use cases that must be carefully considered.
-
Red Piranha has a technology partnership with Downer Defence. What are the major developments in this regard?
We now have over 400 partners world-wide and have seen a 600% increase in partner activation over the last 6 months, which is a trajectory we believe will continue. Largely because we have a world-leading security platform that uniquely facilitates human-machine teaming to solve a lot of pain points that organisations face when implementing cybersecurity. So, as you can imagine, there is a lot of interest.
-
Could you tell us more about Red Piranha’s functions in the D.Start Ignite program?
The program was initiated by the Department of Defence and the Defence Science and Technology Group (DSTG). We are the first non-academic institution to enter the program, which is a great achievement and undertaking that has afforded us special insight into the defence ecosystem. We are very proud of our collaborative efforts while working on defence science projects coming out of Australia.
-
In addition to defence, Red Piranha caters to sectors such as education, financial services and health. What are the major products for these sectors?
The sectors vary as they have different frameworks for governance, risk, and compliance. Like CPS 234 for banking and HIPAA for healthcare. In these types of situations, the platform we provide allows for flexibility when deploying and continually improving capabilities to meet the different security requirements and outcomes that are needed from different compliance frameworks. The Australian Signal Directorate’s Essential 8 for example, has very specific requirements and controls that must be met. Our solutions can be deployed easily and are made to work with very different needs.
-
Apart from Australia, which are the places where Red Piranha has a major presence, what are your plans for Asia and India?
We already have an office in India and one in Taiwan. We have partners in the Middle East and places like Jordon and Dubai, Sri Lanka and Singapore.
As you know, Red Piranha is based out of Perth, in Western Australia, which is a time zone that allows us to work with our partners and customers in Asia and India. We have a close affinity with the region, and we are looking to do more business, especially once the pandemic eases. We are planning to grow our team further in India and are looking forward to doing much more there. Notwithstanding this, is the new defence ties between Australia and India, which are encouraging, and we hope to be able to do more as that partnership deepens.
