Tag Archive for: ICANN

Cyber wrap

Bilateral relations between great powers have been shaken by cybersecurity troubles over the last week. US-Germany relations have deteriorated after Germany arrested an employee of its own Federal Intelligence Service, accusing him of spying for the US. If the allegations are confirmed, ‘then that is really a gamble with friendship and a close alliance’, said President Joachim Gauck. In a show of displeasure, Germany summoned US Ambassador John Emerson to the Foreign Ministry on the fourth of July for ‘swift clarification’, moments before the US Embassy Independence Day celebrations. This is a new blow to a relationship still recovering from the Snowden fallout last year, when the NSA was accused of monitoring millions of Germans’ electronic data, including Chancellor Angela Merkel’s mobile phone.

Another great-power relationship in a state of measured repair is the US-China one, as they begin the sixth Strategic and Economic Dialogue in Beijing today. In the past, the dialogue has been a platform for both countries to address bilateral, regional and global challenges, including cybersecurity cooperation, and this year’s meeting comes at a critical time to stabilise the bilateral relationship. The spanner in the works is China’s suspension of the cybersecurity working group after the US Department of Justice indicted five PLA officials in May this year. While China has indicated that talks will resume once the indictments are revoked, US Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew has signalled that the US will continue to broach cybersecurity issues at the dialogue. Experts over at Brookings have a ‘what you need to know’ discussion piece about the meeting. Read more

Cyber wrap

First up, on the domestic front this week a couple of reports have elevated the issue of government cybersecurity standards, or lack thereof.

Australian Financial Review sources allege that the Chinese intelligence agencies that penetrated Australia’s parliamentary computer network in 2011 may have been inside the system for up to a year (much longer than previously assumed). It’s suspected the email system used by federal MPs, their advisers, electorate staff and parliamentary employees was breached. Independent senator Nick Xenophon has since called for an inquiry as a matter of national security. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang has said ‘we hope that the relevant Australian media can deal with this with a responsible, constructive attitude and not stir up things up (sic) for no reason’. The potential value of any information gleaned by China is uncertain, but the penetration does suggest China’s cyber espionage activities are increasingly focused on revealing political intentions and associations. In June last year it was revealed that Chinese hackers had gained access to the computer networks of Barack Obama and John McCain during the 2008 presidential election.

On another issue, information security consultant Troy Hunt told the Sydney Morning Herald that the controls used to protect myGov—the site providing access to essential government services like Medicare and Centrelink—were ‘irresponsible’. The risk of financial and personal information being exploited will increase from the middle of the year, when the government makes it compulsory for Australians to use the my.gov.au website to lodge their electronic tax returns. In response, the Department of Human Services general manager Hank Jongen said, ‘as technology evolves the department will continue to ensure the service meets community security expectations’. Read more

Governing the Net: the long and winding road

Long and winding road

The American move to fully empower ICANN has been heralded as a game-changing development. The ICANN 49 meeting in Singapore last week launched efforts to facilitate the transition, and in the coming months, the mechanisms of this will take form through consultations at various international meetings including NETmundial in April, ICANN 50 in June, and the Internet Governance Forum in September. While the September 2015 transition deadline has ratcheted up excitement and reinvigorated dialogue on the future of the Internet, it’s first important to understand where the cards lay before the US announcement on 14 March. This week, Governing the Net takes a step back to survey the landscape that was, and flag the key milestones on the road ahead.

Last week, we explored the wily American manoeuvres that simultaneously solidified the Administration’s support for the multi-stakeholder governance model and deeply rocked the Internet governance debate. But what is the multi-stakeholder governance model? The model advocated by the US is firmly rooted in the historical design of Internet management. The 1998 Proposal to Improve the Technical Management of Internet Names and Addresses green paper set forth four principles: stability; competition; private, bottom-up coordination; and representation. These principles remain at the heart of a multi-stakeholder model that privileges consensus decision making, where governments work as equal partners alongside players from industry, business, civil society, NGOs and academia. Read more

Governing the Net: ‘my way or the highway’, says US

ICANN49 is currently being held in Singapore. Early indicators coming out of the conference are favourable to the US' multistakeholder position on internet governance.

The Snowden revelations seem to have been the final straw that broke American resolve against the internationalisation of the Internet. After beating back numerous counter-proposals from Russia and China, working tirelessly to keep a restless EU in its camp, and long championing a multi-stakeholder model, the blowback against extensive NSA surveillance activities and the loss of confidence in the status quo was a storm America couldn’t weather. In a mere 549-word press release, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) of the US Department of Commerce (DOC) announced it would surrender the last remnant of US oversight over ICANN.

‘This is very, very dangerous’ tweeted Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich. ‘This risks foreign dictatorships defining the internet.’ Dramatic words to describe the handover of Domain Name System (DNS) responsibility to ICANN. The reality is much more straight forward—check out episode one of the Governing the Net weekly series for a backgrounder. Read more

Cyber wrap

This week on the cyber wrap, it’s good guys versus bad guys as we ask the question: ‘Who are the enemies of the Internet?’

A recent report (PDF) by Reporters without Borders found that dubious honour belongs to the Centre for Development of Telematics in India, the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) in the United Kingdom and the National Security Agency (NSA) in the United States. It’s not the first time these government agencies have come under fire for their mass surveillance methods. The report scrutinised the ‘schizophrenic’ nature of democratic governments that press for online freedoms while simultaneously adopting the very practices for which they’re criticising authoritarian regimes. The report also highlighted the problem of governments, both democratic and non-democratic, that were ‘riding roughshod over fundamental freedoms’ under the pretext of national security. China also featured in the report for its role in assisting the governments of Iran and Zambia to establish national Internets that are disconnected from the World Wide Web and under the complete control of the government.

Pew Research Center has also published a report on internet freedom this week. Their survey shows widespread opposition to internet censorship in emerging and developing nations. Perhaps unsurprisingly, support for internet freedom is especially strong in countries where a large percentage of the population is online. And, in most of the countries polled, people aged 18–29 were more likely to consider internet freedom a priority than those aged 50 or older. Former US President Bill Clinton has weighed in on the internet freedom debate saying that if the US gives up oversight of ICANN—the non-profit organisation responsible for managing Web domains and IP standards—this will enable foreign governments to crack down on netizens. For an analysis of the ICANN debate, see Klée Aiken and David Lang’s recent post on The Strategist.

Other bad guys of the Internet this week include tech titans Microsoft, Apple and Yahoo. Alex Hern at The Guardian looked into the terms of service and privacy policies of these webmail giants and found they reserve the right to read users’ email if they believe that such access is necessary to protect their property. This story came only a few days after NSA general counsel Rajesh De told the Civil Liberties Oversight Board that tech companies ‘knew what was going on’ with NSA’s spying activities, incurring further reputational costs for the big techs. Google, Facebook, Apple and Microsoft have all denied participating in PRISM, with Google CEO Larry Page stating ‘it’s tremendously disappointing that our government did this and didn’t tell us’.

A further blow to the US’ ‘freedom of information’ narrative has been the revelation that the NSA had created its own backdoors into the Chinese telecommunications company Huawei. One objective of operation ‘Shotgiant’ was to link Huawei with the People’s Liberation Army in order to show that Huawei’s widespread infrastructure would provide China with SIGINT capabilities. Another more disquieting objective was to compromise Huawei, as ‘many of [the US’] targets communicate over Huawei produced products, we want to make sure that we know how to exploit these products’. Thomas Rid over at Kings of War has some interesting take home points on the saga, not least that Snowden is a gift that keeps on giving to China’s leaders. The NSA backdoor into Huawei raises questions on the difference between political and economic cyber attacks. The norm that there is a difference may be dead—or at least blurred beyond distinction. A discussion of international norms on cyber attacks is happening here.

Locally, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has announced that cybercrime is a systemic and black swan risk, in other words, a major event could happen at any time. Chairman Greg Medcraft opened the annual ASIC forum that will host a panel discussion on how regulators can tackle cybercrime. One suggestion by the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions, Robert Bromwich, and the Commissioner of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, Sarah Court, was that tough penalties, including the real risk of jail, has a powerful deterrent effect. That may be the case for domestic criminals, but for offenders in Râmnicu Vâlcea, Romania, aka ‘Hackerville’, the risk is negligible.

Finally, for a look at a look at cyber war with your own eyes, Kaspersky has revealed an interactive map of online threats. The map is in real time with the option to check how infected each country is compared to others. Australia is currently the 23rd most infected country.

Simon Hansen is an intern at ASPI.