[LINK] NBN security?

[Roger Clarke]

At 5:49 +0000 19/10/10, stephen at melbpc.org.au wrote:
>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 [Huawei] 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.
...
>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.
...

Concerns along those lines been raised in the privacy context before, 
with limited success:
http://www.rogerclarke.com/II/NBN-PC-0912.html#Surv

Maybe we need to beat the 'national sovereignty' drum, and get the 
privacy issues to travel with them.

-- 
Roger Clarke                                 http://www.rogerclarke.com/

Xamax Consultancy Pty Ltd      78 Sidaway St, Chapman ACT 2611 AUSTRALIA
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Visiting Professor in the Cyberspace Law & Policy Centre      Uni of NSW
Visiting Professor in Computer Science    Australian National University