[LINK] Router "firewall" security, NBN QC, etc

David Lochrin dlochrin at key.net.au
Sat Jun 3 10:10:21 AEST 2017


On Friday 02 June 2017 at 23:25 Narelle wrote:

>> Suppose 50% of the NBN terminating devices supplied to Australian users contained malware (of whatever origin) which could be operated in a controlled way...
> 
> And this is different how to xDSL today? Or HFC?
> 
> More bandwidth on NBN I suppose...

I was thinking about the telephone network in particular, and should have made that clearer.  The POTS network is (or was!) engineered to the same high standard everywhere and operated largely by a single authority, approved instruments have little variability in quality, and there's no scope for malware.

But the NBN requires every telephony user to install some form of modem-router-ATA which is probably built to a price.  As far as I know there's no requirement to meet any standard regarding voice quality, transmission quality, software functionality, reliability, & integrity, or network security.  And instead of one or a small number of technically competent network operators the NBN Co. website lists 145 service providers.

Who is then responsible for the overall quality of this essential public infrastructure?  Nobody as far as I can see.


> ISPs have been after commodity, user supplied "CPE" (strictly CE) for over a decade. The level of testing has also been dropping. Given it's all migrating over IP regardless of the NBN then C519 voice quality standards no longer apply. With the broadening of voice services to a multiplicity of providers the level of discipline in conditioning networks and conformance to things like IETF BCP38 is also highly variable. Plenty of devices are shipped with default uid and passwords so who needs a backdoor?
> 
> This is why dDOS and reflection attacks can get to Gbps rates and take down highly resilient services.
> 
> What we need is better conformance, testing and better recognition of what technical standards need to be in place to deliver services. Fit for service.

Exactly!!!

David L.



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