Displaying items by tag: Mike Burgess

It took just one question from Paul Karp, chief political correspondent at Guardian Australia, to put the brakes on at the National Press Club on Wednesday, during a Q&A for two top Australian security officials.

The Telecommunications Sector Security Reforms, put in place just after the Turnbull Government was toppled in 2018, have hit Huawei Australia hard, with the company losing 900 direct jobs, more than 1500 sub-contracting jobs and $100 million in R&D in Australia, the company claims in a submission to a parliamentary inquiry.

The Australian Security Intelligence Organisation — in what has been described as a rare public statement — has warned about foreign intelligence agencies who are using sites like LinkedIn and other social interaction spaces to groom and recruit Australians who have access to cutting-edge technology and sensitive information.

Privacy is paramount but not total, because there is a balance between privacy and security, ASIO chief Mike Burgess claims, adding that "under the rule of law when appropriate warrants are in place, law enforcement or ASIO should be able to get access to something".

ABC journalists' ignorance of technology has been on display once again, with senior broadcaster Patricia Karvelas displaying an acute lack of knowledge during an interview with former senator Nick Xenophon, whose legal firm has been hired by Huawei to help correct misconceptions about its operations.

Some members of Parliament proved to be the worst enemies of their own network when they opened the door to malware by visiting an external website that had been compromised, it has been revealed.

The breach of the Australian Parliament network, announced in February, was the country's first national cyber crisis, according to the annual report of the Australian Signals Directorate for 2018-19 which was released recently.

The British Government has taken a much more intelligent approach to the 5G security issue and has conducted an open and transparent process around it, the local arm of Chinese telecommunications equipment vendor Huawei Technologies says, adding that it had fully co-operated with the process.

An official from the Department of Home Affairs has been selected to lead the Australian Cyber Security Centre to replace Alastair MacGibbon who quit the post two weeks before the Federal Election in May.

Anonymous sources close to former Australian prime minister Malcolm Turnbull appear to be trying to promote him as a tech champion who led the charge to get Huawei banned from 5G networks worldwide, crediting the ex-PM with having pushed the Americans into reacting against the Chinese company, rather than the other way round.

The United States says it sees no distinction between the core of a 5G network and its radio access network, and will reconsider sharing information with any ally that uses equipment made by Chinese vendor Huawei Technologies in its next-generation telecommunications network.

The Coalition Government will pledge $156 million to bolster cyber security efforts that are in place to guard the country's communications networks, with Prime Minister Scott Morrison set to make the pledge on Monday.

The Australian Signals Directorate has ascertained that hackers who breached the networks of the Australian Parliament and those of three main political parties — Liberal, Labor and National — are nation-state actors, but the agency's director-general, Mike Burgess, has said he cannot name the country involved in a public forum.

A cyber security and information warfare researcher from the University of New South Wales has issued what can be only described as an alarmist warning that the forthcoming Australian Federal Election will attract social media manipulation, nation-state attacks and a "swarm of advertising and messaging in platforms as diverse as Facebook and WeChat".

Australian Signals Directorate director-general Mike Burgess has warned private or public companies against hacking back to defend themselves against potential online attacks, as they would be breaking the law.

Nearly three years after a leak of NSA exploits by a group calling itself the Shadow Brokers disclosed the open secret that the agency keeps knowledge of vulnerabilities to itself, the Australian Signals Directorate, the equivalent agency Down Under, has posted a document indicating that it, too, does not disclose all vulnerabilities it finds, but retains some for offensive purposes.

The US Government has threatened to withhold intelligence from Germany if Berlin uses equipment from Chinese telecommunications vendor Huawei Techologies or other Chinese firms in its 5G networks.

The continued insistence by the director of the Australian Signals Directorate, Mike Burgess, that there is no separation between the 5G core and the radio access network has been termed as "disappointing" by a network expert, who questioned where the evidence was for such a claim.

A spokesman from the Australian arm of Chinese telecommunications equipment vendor Huawei Technologies has expressed surprise about a report on Wednesday saying the Australian Government rejected an offer from the company to set up a cyber security testing centre, pointing out that this was something that it had first offered to the Gillard Government back in 2012.

The computer network at the Federal Parliament has been infiltrated and security agencies are now trying to find out if any data was stolen in the attack and who was responsible.