Airlock Digital signs major health & wellness group as ransomware and cyber attacks lead consumer enterprises to adopt Essential Eight

Announcement posted by emt Distribution 30 Jun 2021

Consumer enterprises responding to heightened risk environment by embracing the ACSC’s Essential Eight as the de facto Australian cyber security standard

Adelaide, Australia – 30 June 2021: Australian cybersecurity pioneer Airlock Digital today announced that consumer enterprises, including a major Asia Pacific health & wellness group, are adopting the Airlock allowlisting solution as a key part of the Essential Eight cyber mitigation strategies to protect against ransomware and other cyber attacks.

Airlock implements Application Control – the first of the Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC) Essential Eight strategies to mitigate cyber security incidents – to prevent execution of unapproved and/or malicious programs like ransomware.

The Essential Eight – which the Australian government is mandating for all non-corporate Commonwealth entities in addition to the already mandatory Top Four – has become the de facto Australian cyber security standard to protect against increasing ransomware and other cyber attacks. Many other cyber security frameworks, including the U.S. Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC), also recommend Application Control.

The ACSC recommends that all Australian organisations implement the Essential Eight mitigation strategies as a baseline to make it much harder for adversaries to compromise systems. This can be more cost-effective in terms of time, money and effort, it says, than having to respond to a large-scale cyber security incident.

With the rise of ransomware, consumer enterprises and their customers now face similar cyber threats to government agencies, banks and critical infrastructure, according to Airlock Digital Co-Founder, David Cottingham, and are implementing pro-active measures like Application Control.

“It is heartening to see leading consumer enterprises pro-actively responding to the heightened risk environment by embracing the Essential Eight and developing a mature, risk-based approach to cyber security,” said Cottingham.

Fitness & Lifestyle Group (FLG) is one major consumer enterprise implementing Airlock as a key part of the Essential Eight. FLG is Asia Pacific’s leading health & wellness group, with over 500 gym locations across Australia, New Zealand and South-East Asia, and a range of on-demand digital health and fitness programmes.

“Airlock Digital is proud to assist Fitness & Lifestyle Group implement Application Control, the number one measure in the ACSC Essential Eight, which is particularly effective against ransomware,” said Cottingham.

“The protection of our staff and our members’ data is a priority for our business,” said Lee Roebig, Head of Information Security at Fitness & Lifestyle Group. “The ACSC Essential Eight is extremely important to FLG, as it should be for any other global business.”

“While we use multiple endpoint security controls, it is safe to say that Airlock is our most effective solution for protecting endpoints from malicious software-based attacks,” said Roebig.

“Aside from achieving the number one ACSC security control and the associated benefits, we now have a really good grasp of what applications are being used across all our brands and businesses and can now ensure that only authorised programs are running,” he said.

About Airlock Digital

Australian based cybersecurity company, Airlock Digital, delivers forward thinking endpoint protection solutions which enable organisations to implement rapid, scalable allowlisting and execution control. Through first-hand understanding of the operational challenges in cybersecurity, intimate industry experience, and an intuitive solution set, Airlock Digital is positioned as the leading, commercial allowlisting vendor. Airlock operates worldwide with offices in Australia and the United States.

The Airlock allowlisting solution enables organisations to reduce cyber risk and significantly uplift their endpoint security posture. Through industry leading workflows that are easy to use, Airlock enables organisations of all maturity levels to maintain a long-term effective allowlisting strategy without end user disruption. Airlock’s innovative, feature-rich allowlisting is used to protect hundreds of thousands of endpoints across the globe.