Technology developed in Wales is helping British and US governments protect communications networks from the threat of cyber attacks.

Cassidian is the security and defence division of EADS and Cassidian UK is the Newport-based UK arm.

Cassidian UK is providing parliament with information communication technology services, and the US government’s Defense Information Systems Agency with secure voice encryption devices.

The three-year contract to provide the Houses of Parliament with a range of ICT services is one of the first awarded to a trusted, approved supplier of cyber security and network services from the Public Services Network framework.

It is in line with the UK public sector’s intent to get best value for money.

Cassidian, with its proven track record over many years of providing network security systems for defence, was chosen in 2012 as one of four commercial cybersecurity organisations to work with national authorities in the on-going Cyber Incident Response pilot.

The US contract, signed by EADS North America, is for three ECTOCRYP Black high capacity secure voice encryption units for Defense Enterprise Computing Centers.

Developed by Cassidian in Newport, ECTOCRYP Black uses commercial off-theshelf hardware that can be programmed for new features and technology.

It can handle 92 simultaneous individual calls and store hundreds of cipher keys and can switch between networks to a greater degree than any existing system of its size.

Michael Stevens, UK CEO of Cassidian, said: “These wins demonstrate that our Wales based business is capable of producing world-class cyber defence solutions for international applications.

“We are proud to be developing technology in the UK to this level. Encryption technology is used everyday by everyone in our society from mobile phone security to banking.

“Government security standards around cryptology are of necessity extremely high.

This achievement in capability has taken us more than 10 years of research and considerable investment to reach.”