Fedlink
Cost-effectively enabling secure communications between Government agencies
Overview
On 15 April 2004, the Government directed all Financial Management and Accountability (FMA) agencies to protect their data transmissions by using FedLink or an equivalent protection system.
FedLink is an innovative and cost-effective solution for enabling secure communications between Australian Government agencies across the public infrastructure. It is a dynamic encryption mechanism, which provides secure and trusted communications across the Internet. This allows the Commonwealth, State and Territory Government jurisdictions to transmit and receive information securely up to the security classification of PROTECTED.
FedLink was designed using the IP Security (IPSec) international standard. FedLink creates authenticated, encrypted links between participating agencies to create a secure Virtual Private Network (VPN) across the Internet. An accredited certificate authority (CA) provides digital certificates and the public key infrastructure (PKI) necessary for a scalable and manageable VPN. FedLink was designed to allow government agencies to share information securely with cost and maintenance advantages over an equivalent system which would require multiple leased lines between agencies.
Note: On 8 June 2011, the Protective Security Policy Framework (PSPF) was released by the Attorney General’s Department. The PSPF no longer differentiates between National and non National security classifications. The number of security classifications has been reduced from seven to four which are TOP SECRET – SECRET – CONFIDENTIAL – PROTECTED and five Dissemination Limiting Markers (DLM’s) have been introduced. These DLM’s are Sensitive, Sensitive : Cabinet, Sensitive: Legal, Sensitive: Personal and For Office Use Only (FOUO). FedLink will be updated to include the new security classifications and DLM’s prior to July 2012.
Contact details
Email: Fedlink Officer
Phone: [+61] 02 6215 1585
Fax: [+61] 02 6267 7424
Contact for information on this page: Fedlink Officer