Network penetration testing; commissioned by mainly large companies, utilities, banks, e-commerce enterprises and in more recent times smaller businesses to hack into their network to expose security flaws.
Lured to Armidale by the availability of the NBN Whitehack was established in late 2012.
My business did not and probably would not have operated in Armidale prior to the NBN, the nature of my work requires a significant amount of bandwidth in order to deliver results in certain types of testing. The amount of bandwidth required is only going to increase, especially as more staff come through later this year. If I was to operate in Armidale on an ADSL connection I would require multiple connections to the premises at increased cost, or other methods at even greater cost. Having this cheaper connection (when compared to say a copper connection) gives me one less thing to worry about when competing internationally for tenders.
The NBN increases the speed in which certain elements of testing can be completed, meaning I can be more efficient in my testing, finishing jobs sooner. We would use up to three or four terabytes of data a month and if I did that on an ADSL connection, it would cost me thousands of dollars and take a whole lot longer to download. Doing things quicker and smarter frees up my time to take on more work or have more playtime.
It is good to know that even if I eventually have, say, 10 testers working locally in the future the infrastructure is here to allow the growth, for my business, quality internet is as valuable as water or soil is to a farmer. Hopefully the NBN will attract more large high tech businesses to town that require my services! Other opportunities potentially include the data centre that has been proposed.
Whitehack website