Consulting giant to provide services including firewalls and data-loss prevention

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Accenture has been signed to a £40m five-year framework to provide NHS trusts with a range of perimeter security services.

The deal has been signed with NHS Digital, which worked on the procurement process alongside NHSX and the National Cyber Security Centre. The services covered by the contract include firewalls, web content filtering, network intrusion and prevention, domain-name system (DNS) security services, and data-loss prevention.

The contract is already in effect and will last for five years, an NHS Digital spokesperson told PublicTechnology. Services will be ready for NHS trusts to procure around the turn of the year. The lifetime value of the deal is estimated at £40m – although this could rise or fall depending on uptake of the tools on offer.

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The services are designed to build upon and complement those already provided via NHS Digital’s Data Security Centre, which offers monitoring, security assessments, threat intelligence, and training.

Rob Shaw, deputy chief executive of NHS Digital, encouraged trusts to take advantage of the products offered via the contract.

“This deal is great news for NHS organisations,” he said. “This is cutting-edge technology that will help keep patient information and NHS systems safe, at no cost to local organisations. For us, the more organisations that join, the better we will be able to see what is happening across the estate. This means that we will be able to monitor for threats more effectively, supporting the NHS to increase data security and helping to provide safer care for patients.”

Perimeter security relates to securing the boundaries of an organisation’s private network, which are often constituted by connected hardware devices such as routers and firewalls.

Accenture, a $40bn-turnover professional services giant founded in the US but with global headquarters in Dublin, holds a number of big contracts across the NHS and the rest of the public sector. Among its most high-profile engagements is an ongoing five-year deal to deliver the NHSmail cloud-based email system used by the entire health service.