[LINK] Australian CyberWarfare Battalion

[Karl Auer]

On Tue, 2013-08-06 at 09:04 +1000, Tom Worthington wrote:
> Day to day the reserve personnel would carry out their normal day job, 
> securing their organization's civilian IT systems. They would also keep 
> in touch with their military colleagues via secure communications.

Wow. In one week we have smokers' licences and this.

You are seriously proposing inserting paramilitary Government spies into
civilian enterprises, and you think their only duties would be to "be
alert"? The potential for mission creep would be enormous, and the
temptation irresistible.

These "secure communications" - would they be closed against the host
organisations as well? Oh, great idea - put a Government official, with
a secret line to the Government, in the heart of an organisation's
security systems. What could possibly go wrong?

I suppose it would at least be in the open. Organisations could make
sure that these people never get into positions of real influence and
are kept at a safe distance from confidential information, real security
systems etc.

> Information on individual attacks would be collated and if a sustained, 
> widespread attack was suspected, that would be reported to the military 
> headquarters, who would then brief the civilian government, to decide 
> what measures should be taken.

Do these people report to HQ first, or to their host organisation first?
To whom is their first duty? What information, if any, flows back to the
host organisations? What more generally do host organisations get out of
this? What protections against abuse will be offered?

This rates as one of the most foolish ideas I have seen in a long time -
and doubly so after the recent revelations about the NSA and the
collusion our own Government has engaged in *and continues to engage in*
with that illegal and corrupt foreign organisation.

Regards, K.

-- 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Karl Auer (kauer at biplane.com.au)
http://www.biplane.com.au/kauer
http://twitter.com/kauer389

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