AVA Group to Safeguard Indian Defense Ministry’s Closed User Group Data Network

Ava Group has been selected to deploy its fibre optic intrusion detection and location solution to support the Indian ministry of defense’ (MoD) closed user group data network used by military personnel.

The project to deploy its Future Fibre Technologies (FFT) solution is valued at around US$11 million, the company said in a statement Tuesday.

Any data network is as strong as its weakest link. Government departments, intelligence services, military organisations, financial organisations, nuclear facilities and commercial businesses with valuable intellectual property will have stringent measures in place to mitigate physical and cybersecurity threats yet are often oblivious to the danger of leaving even a closed fibre network unprotected. As such, the asset owners can be potentially exposed to the threat of state-on-state action, terrorism and industrial espionage, as well as incident without motive, the company said.

With low-cost readily available technology that requires little expertise, it is possible for an agenda-driven individual, or state-sponsored actor to tap and infiltrate a network at the fibre optic level and harvest data, without raising the alarm, or leaving an evidence trail. Chris Fergus, Ava Group CEO said, “Any data breach is of grave concern, but those that pass undetected raise the stakes significantly. What’s more, in some instances fibre networks run across vast distances, meaning there could be tens of thousands of potential entry points for attack.” 

The project is expected to be delivered in phases over a 15-month period.