[LINK] NBN security?

[stephen at melbpc.org.au]

Spy fears as Chinese firm eyes NBN deal 

by Maris Beck, October 17, 2010
<http://www.theage.com.au/technology/technology-news>


SECURITY experts are alarmed that a company with links to the Chinese 
military is bidding to supply equipment to the national broadband 
network, warning that the equipment could be used to spy or launch cyber 
attacks on Australian governments and businesses.

The United States' National Security Agency intervened to block Huawei 
Technologies' bids to supply equipment to AT&T last year, threatening to 
withdraw government business if Huawei was chosen, The Washington Post 
reported.

The company also has faced opposition from Indian and British 
intelligence agencies and Australian security experts are voicing similar 
concerns as Huawei seeks a slice of the $43 billion broadband roll-out.

As the rate of cyber attacks on Australian interests intensifies, an 
intelligence expert at the Australian National University's Strategic and 
Defence Studies Centre, Desmond Ball, said he didn't want to sound 
alarmist ''but this is the highest order risk that I would see with 
regard to network vulnerability''.

Bids by Huawei ''would have to be subject to the closest scrutiny, but in 
the end it would be the government's responsibility to reject such an 
involvement''.

He said the cyber security debate focused on malicious software but more 
attention should be paid to hardware, which could carry digital 
trapdoors. 

Professor Ball said even the most secure cable systems were vulnerable.

Over the next decade, he said, the US-China relationship would become the 
most likely source of major international conflict and Australia was a 
key ally of the US.

Retired air commodore Gary Waters, a former senior official in the 
Defence Department who now works for consultancy firm Jacobs Australia, 
said the government appeared not to be taking cyber security seriously 
enough. ''The threat is increasing and I think this is one of those 
threats,'' he said, adding that an independent private-sector audit would 
be required of any foreign company ''where alarm bells could sound on 
cyber security''.

Alan Dupont, director of the Centre for International Security Studies at 
the University of Sydney, called for a robust discussion of the NBN's 
security risks, saying: ''This is the critical piece of infrastructure 
that is going to go down over the next 30 or 40 years … there needs to be 
a broader discussion of the national security implications.''

The executive director of national security policy at Verizon in 
Washington, DC, Marcus Sachs, said malicious software was easy to hide in 
hardware and any risk assessment should focus on how much a company could 
be trusted.

Huawei lost a bid to supply the NBN's ethernet aggregation equipment and 
the gigabit passive optical network in June. The contract went to Alcatel-
Lucent, a French company.

Huawei, the world's second-largest telecommunications network provider, 
is believed to be preparing bids to supply almost all the equipment the 
NBN needs. Former Victorian minister Theo Theophanous is lobbying 
Canberra on Huawei's behalf.

Huawei emphasises that it is privately owned and has released details 
that show its employees own its shares. But links with the military are 
persistently reported. According to The New York Times, Huawei's founder 
and chief executive, Ren Zhengfei, was an officer in the People's 
Liberation Army. China analysts say loan credits from China Construction 
Bank, which were granted to small companies that wanted to buy Huawei 
equipment, were not necessarily repaid.

Jeremy Mitchell, public affairs director for Huawei Australia, denied the 
company was linked to the Chinese government.

He said Huawei guaranteed that its equipment was safe. Despite 
intelligence resistance, Huawei has supplied equipment to British 
Telecom. He said Optus and Telstra already used Huawei's equipment and 
about 50 per cent of Australians relied on it. A spokeswoman for 
Communications Minister Senator Stephen Conroy said the government would 
ensure that ''national security and resilience issues are addressed in 
the design and operation of the NBN''.

--

Cheers,
Stephen