The Australian Customs Service (ACS) has awarded a multi-million dollar, three year contract to Cybertrust to provide secure gateway services.

Cybertrust will design, build and manage a consolidated gateway to cater for Customs' corporate and Customs Connect Facility (CCF) requirements.

The CCF is a highly secure Web-based gateway for users of Customs' business applications.

Cybertrust first began providing gateway security to the ACS more than five years ago.

Despite being the incumbent, a Cybertrust spokeswoman said contract went to open tender and was a highly competitive bid.

She said the ACS is planning to consolidate two gateways into one.

Presently, Customs has two secure gateways, both of which were designed and built by Cybertrust.

One protects Customs' corporate network traffic while the second is part of Customs' Cargo Management Re-engineering project and is a core function of the CCF, which enables cargo brokers to securely lodge movements in and out of Australia online.

"Customs is one of Australia's frontline government agencies and must be able to offer its clients, employees and other key stakeholders the most robust security around its networks and systems," according to Paul O'Rourke, Cybertrust's Asia Pacific senior vice president and general manager.

ACS CIO, Murray Harrison, said Cybertrust was the successful tenderer because of its industry experience and demonstrated capacity to implement and support Customs Internet and secure gateway environment.

The CCF secure gateway is a high-transaction Gateway that enables Customs to protect Australia's borders from harmful and illegal goods while at the same time, ensuring that legitimate cargo moves swiftly in and out of the country.