Viasat Opens State-of-the-Art Network Operations Centre & Cyber Security Operations Centre in the UK

March 30, 2021

Viasat UK Ltd., announced the opening of its state-of-the-art Network Operations Centre (NOC) and Cyber Security Operations Centre (CSOC) in Aldershot, UK. The facility will support defence, government and commercial organisations who rely on the guaranteed resilience of their networks, and who are targeted by increasingly sophisticated cyberattacks from a growing number of adversaries. The NOC and CSOC represent the beginning of a major investment in the UK prosperity and sovereignty agenda from Viasat, which includes targeting the creation of more than 75 new highly-skilled network, analysis and cyber security roles, and more than £300m in UK-focused investment to support the launch and service roll-out of the impending ViaSat-3 constellation over Europe, Middle East and Africa.

Acting as a global customer care centre, the NOC and CSOC offer customers monitoring, detection and network support to help ensure the overall health of the network; identify potential issues or security threats; resolve those issues and threats in the shortest time possible; and confirm that any threat resolution is successful.  

"We are entering an era of rapidly changing threat environments, where both the enemies that organisations face and their methods of attack, have taken on new and very dangerous forms," said Steve Beeching, managing director of Viasat UK. "From militaries, to governments, to critical national infrastructure and the private sector, the network is one of an organisation's most precious resources, and as such a prime target for adversaries. Constant vigilance against these ever developing threats can mean diverting resources from other priorities. Organisations need a partner who can provide the support, understanding and responsibility needed to protect the network so that they can focus on their core mission. Viasat's secure mobility, assured satellite communications, network and behavioural analytics experience, along with our drive to bring the best people, technology and innovation to the forefront, make us perfectly suited to open, manage and grow an integrated NOC/CSOC."

The Viasat NOC and CSOC services are available to customers operating Viasat's cyber solutions or running over Viasat's global satellite network or Managed Private Service. Viasat's NOC analysts monitor network health and load balancing 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. Viasat works closely with customers to determine their needs, develop security integration, optimise networks, provide monitoring structures and escalation processes to suit the customer's mission. The NOC also provides always-available technical support and provisioning for the primary network, terminals and user devices. Customers can have full confidence that Viasat will provide services and support customer operations to help resolve network issues identified by the CSOC.

The CSOC itself builds on Viasat's decades of experience protecting both commercial networks and working closely with the Ministry of Defence, U.S. Department of Defense, and allied forces worldwide to protect classified data. Viasat's integrated cybersecurity model processes more than 35 terabytes of metadata every day, including more than 2.4 billion events that the CSOC analyses across Viasat's network. This highly relevant, actionable intelligence means Viasat can maintain a vigilant and watchful defence against some of the world's most advanced adversaries, deflecting thousands of attacks on its global network every day.

"I was delighted when Viasat chose Aldershot to further its investment in the UK, and with its dedication to the UK prosperity agenda," said Leo Docherty, Member of Parliament for Aldershot. "Technology changes rapidly, as do the threats we face. Our response in turn needs to be both rapid and agile. To guarantee this, we need to look to the dynamism and creativity of private sector organisations such as Viasat. In partnership, we can create and develop the new services that will keep the UK at the forefront of technology."

"The UK is an important market for Viasat. From the continued expansion of high-speed broadband services across the country, to the importance of space and satellites as part of the nation's industrial strategy, we are committed to supporting the UK prosperity agenda," said Ken Peterman, president, Government Systems, Viasat. "From helping develop sovereign technologies for the UK armed forces and Government; to investing in high-tech industries such as space and AI; to offering ultra-fast satellite broadband from our future ViaSat-3 constellation; we are looking forward to helping the UK meet its technological and industrial ambitions."