Cyberspace in the 21st Century demands that organisations know where their information is, how secure it is and what measures are necessary, or sufficient, for effective data protection? The Senetas Leadership team comes together to share news and views related to information security and data protection in the face of new and emerging cyber threats. They comment on the latest trends and business strategies that minimise the risk to personal and corporate information.
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The recent report by the Kokoda foundation (National Broadband Network at risk from spies and hackers, The Australian, 4th January 2011) is a wakeup call to the builder's of the National Broadband Network, NBN co said Senetas CTO Julian Fay.
Mr Fay said that the report highlights the security "vulnerabilities" of the new network and the serious threats posed to national security and the economy.
In the report the foundation points out that to date cyber security has not been part of the debate on the NBN, despite the recognition that without counter measures the high speed optical network is vulnerable to attacks ranging from local criminals to foreign spys.
"Senetas concurs with the Kokoda foundation's findings which echo our own submission to the Senate Select committee to the NBN in 2009" said Mr Fay.
"In August 2009 we argued strongly to the Select Committee that before the NBN was built it was critical to take stock of how information sent across the network should be protected to prevent serious breaches.
In setting the foundation for this historic project we have an opportunity to address the critical issue of security from the beginning by having the foresight to design it into the core fabric of the NBN rather than trying to bolt it on as an afterthought. Security needs to be thought of as a part of the infrastructure of the NBN which is going to be the heart of communications for this and future generations of Australians."
Mr Fay urged the NBN co to adopt a "privacy by design" approach to the network architecture which will deliver high speed broadband services over fiber-optic cable to an estimated 93% of the population.
"Recognising that it is not possible to prevent physical access to an entire optical fibre network a sensible risk mitigation strategy should accept that information will be stolen and adopt mechanisms to render that data unusable after theft".
Mr Fay stated that "Modern countermeasures such as the Senetas CN1000 high performance encryption product renders information unintelligible in transmission without degrading network performance even across optical networks running up to 10Gbps".
"It is our belief" he said "and the Kokoda report reinforces this, that an investment now, spent thinking deeply about long term security problems will pay large dividends for the future."
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