[LINK] CIA honeypot WikiLeaks mirror - retracted

Glen Turner gdt at gdt.id.au
Mon Dec 13 11:17:33 AEDT 2010


On Sun, 2010-12-12 at 14:37 +1100, Tom Koltai wrote:
> Well depending on the peering agreements one has with the various
> switches in the exchanges, not very hard at all. Access to the switch
> backplane is a relatively trivial exercise.

It is not trivial. Even it if were done, put bluntly, our technical
people are better than their's (for a start, we pay them more) and
discovery is only a matter of time. An Australian agency acting that way
would destroy the trust required for the operation of the interception
arrangements, to the detriment of Australian society.

> Earlier this year I was laughed at for suggesting that Australia needed
> to run it's own Root Server.

We do run own own root server.

But you have confused the technical and the political. The root servers
only point to the servers for the next level down .au, .com., .edu and
so on. Whilst running a root server enhances the stability of the
internet, it doesn't achieve the policy outcome you desire.

What you desire is the ability to augment the official zones with
additions or deletions. That is, "split DNS". Only one country has
deployed that -- China. It was one of the technical approaches to
implementing Internet filtering in Australia -- it was the preferred
solution by Telstra. So in future years you may yet get your wish.
Personally, I'm happy enough for the US to control a small proportion of
the DNS namespace as opposed to Australia having full control of the DNS
as seen by Australians implemented by using a filtering-ready DNS
infrastructure.

-- 
 Glen Turner
 www.gdt.id.au/~gdt




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