RTÉ to spend €7.5m on cybersecurity services 'to protect digital infrastructure'

Tender allows for the provision of outsourced cybersecurity services, including a security operations centre, managed detection and response, threat monitoring and other services. Picture: Mark Stedman/RollingNews.ie

RTÉ is to spend up to €7.5m on the provision of cybersecurity consultancy services and products to its various offices.

The State broadcaster has tendered for a dynamic purchasing system (DPS) for the comprehensive provision of those IT security solutions over five years.

The products and services are set to include firewalls for computer networks, threat vulnerability assessments, network monitoring, email filtering, and information security management systems.

The tender further allows for the provision of outsourced cybersecurity services, including a security operations centre, managed detection and response, threat monitoring and any other services required “to protect RTE’s digital infrastructure”.

It also provides for “specialist cybersecurity expertise and consultancy services”, including vulnerability assessments, incident response and strategic advisory services, the broadcaster said.

It is unclear if the new tender replaces an existing expiring contract, or what the value of that contract may have been.

A dynamic purchasing system differs from framework agreements, typically used in Irish public tenders, in that it can be amended and vendors added to at any time over its duration.

A spokesperson for RTÉ said it intended to use the advertised DPS “to procure commonly used cybersecurity products and services... in a manner that complies with public procurement legislation”.

They added the €7.5m value stated on the new tender call “does not represent the expected value of any individual contract that may be awarded to a vendor”, but rather represents an “an aggregate potential total value of all contracts that may be issued under the DPS” over its five-year lifetime.

RTÉ has issued a number of new tenders in recent times for the procurement of services, including €249,000 last April for the provision of water coolers and a further €500,000 in May for the acquisition of branded cups, t-shirts, and pens.

The broadcaster has faced scrutiny of its finances in the wake of a series of scandals which began in June 2023 after it emerged star presenter Ryan Tubridy had been secretly paid a salary greater than that declared by RTÉ in its public pronouncements.

In the wake of that bombshell, RTÉ faced a punishing series of independent investigations and interrogations by two separate Oireachtas committees.

In summer 2024, the Government elected to bail out the cash-strapped broadcaster to the tune of €725m payable over three years.