Two Queensland companies, space and defence rocket manufacturer Black Sky Aerospace (BSA) and digital security provider de.iterate have partnered to ensure the digital security of BSA’s guided weapons development program. 

BSA and de.iterate will combine AS9100D (Quality Management Systems – for Aviation, Space, and Defence) and ISO27001 (International Standard for Information Security) to ensure the delivery of Guided Weapon capability whilst keeping technology information secure. 

BSA is developing and operating guided weapons to help enhance Australia’s self-reliance and supply chain resilience, a priority of the Federal Governments Guided Weapons and Explosive Ordnance Enterprise (GWEO). 

Black Sky Aerospace CEO Blake Nikolic said the Intellectual Property behind these highly sophisticated technologies could be very dangerous in the wrong hands. 

“Black Sky Aerospace is changing the Defence and space capability landscape in Australia and with that comes the responsibility of protecting critical technology”, Mr Nikolic said. 

“Even though we are a small business, cyber security is as important to us as anyone,” Nikolic said. “The partnership between BSA and de.iterate will help safeguard our innovations from state and criminal actors.” 

de.iterate specialises in digital security and privacy compliance. As a leading Australian Regulatory Technology (RegTech) company, de.iterate helps organisations implement, maintain and comply with cyber security standards such as ISO 27001, DISP and ASD Essential Eight. 

“Cyber-attacks are becoming much more frequent and are having ever-increasing impact,” said de.iterate CEO Andrew Lawrence. 

“de.iterate plays a critical role in enabling businesses to gain compliance certification for international standards, such as ISO27001 to protect sensitive information from disclosure” 

With heightened tensions across the Pacific and increasing cyber-attacks globally, maturing technology is exposed to higher risk of cyber-attacks. 

Mr Nikolic said that making these strides in Australia is vital if the nation is to become more self-reliant in defence technology and become an exporter to our allies and partners. 

“As we advance guided weapon technology, we also need to be armed to defend against modern cyber-warfare,” said Mr Nikolic. 

Testing of Guided Weapons will continue at secure locations to raise technology readiness levels in preparation for commercial supply from 2023.