[kictanet] NSA Tapping into Google & Yahoo Networks? How is Kenya protected?

Thu Oct 31 11:58:03 EAT 2013

Search engines will be largely unaffected btw. Search engines don’t go through your mail etc… 

The internet services that are centralised will remain centralised (basic web hosting/blogs etc). However, mail, internal applications etc still have to be secured… 

There’s data that we don’t mind being publicly accessible (e.g. The Nation Media Group website), and there’s data that the NSA/Search engines etc should not have access to (e.g. My banking records, my health records etc). 

We need to bring the latter back home simply because the US has proven it cannot be trusted… It’s not that the galvanised internet is the best option, it’s simply a compromise because some people have broken trust… 
-- 
Phares Kariuki
From: Walubengo J Walubengo J
Reply: Walubengo J jwalu at yahoo.com
Date: October 31, 2013 at 11:10:34 AM
To: Phares Kariuki pkariuki at gmail.com
Subject:  Re: [kictanet] NSA Tapping into Google & Yahoo Networks? How is Kenya protected?  
@Phares,  

this line of thinking was has been explored recently at the IGF and I had a different angle to it and I quote:  

>>  
Whereas having each economy build its own email, social media and other web-based systems may provide national pride and a debatable sense of national security, it unfortunately goes towards balkanising the Internet along existing national geographic boundaries.  

The final effect will be a diminished value for online services. Search engines will end up with only a localised or national view of data, as opposed to the more international view currently enjoyed by keeping the Internet open and global.  
>>>  

more  
@ http://www.nation.co.ke/oped/blogs/dot9/Lessons-from-the-Global-Internet-Governance-Forum/-/1959700/2051402/-/ouee6l/-/index.html  

walu.  

--------------------------------------------  
On Thu, 10/31/13, Phares Kariuki <pkariuki at gmail.com> wrote:  

Subject: Re: [kictanet] NSA Tapping into Google & Yahoo Networks? How is Kenya protected?  
To: jwalu at yahoo.com  
Cc: "KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions" <kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke>  
Date: Thursday, October 31, 2013, 10:09 AM  

I’ll very selfishly  
advocate for an increased uptake of local cloud services,  
away from the NSA’s prying eyes, with locally established  
standards of encryption etc…   
We’ve got capable  
universities that can assist in coming up with new  
encryption etc standards for the military &  
government.   
Interesting article by  
Charles  
Obbo…. http://www.nation.co.ke/oped/Opinion/Spy-more-on-your-friends-than-foes/-/440808/2053660/-/j8oy4g/-/index.html  
--   
Phares Kariuki  
From: Ngigi  
Waithaka Ngigi Waithaka  
Reply: Ngigi Waithaka  
ngigi at at.co.ke  
Date: October 31, 2013 at  
9:12:10 AM  
To: Phares Kariuki pkariuki at gmail.com  
Subject:  [kictanet] NSA  
Tapping into Google & Yahoo Networks? How is Kenya  
protected?  

Listers,  

Just came across this http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/nsa-infiltrates-links-to-yahoo-google-data-centers-worldwide-snowden-documents-say/2013/10/30/e51d661e-4166-11e3-8b74-d89d714ca4dd_story.html?hpid=z1  

It looks like Google might have been caught by the NSA  
with  
their pants down since hacking into their Data Transport  
layer  
simply gives up all the secrets that encryption is supposed  
to be  
protecting.  

Now, moving on swiftly to the local setup, I am also  
concerned  
that even as we look to start pushing for National Standards  
of  
Encryption through the PKI project, whether we as a country  
have  
come together to review and see how to protect our countries  
intelligence and data.  

We also know for a fact that the US was busy tapping  
into  
World Leaders phones, and I can bet if there are a few  
presidents  
to be 'tapped' in Africa, ours should be way up on  
that  
ladder!  

However, more worrying would be, how protected are our  
internal networks from such tapping, even from locals? Could  
there  
be a guy who has tapped into Safaricoms internal network and  
is  
busy reading every email, chat that is flying through and  
perhaps  
selling such information to our erstwhile enemies the  
Al-Shabbab?  

I was once very surprised when a personal friend got a  
transcript of all his calls, and chat messages,  
word-for-word for  
the previous past 6 months, dug up from one of the local  
Telcos.  
The ease with which such information was availed appalled me  
as it  
clearly means that the Telcos clearly store all our chats,  
and such  
records in clear text months after we have used them and a  
guy with  
basic SQL knowledge just needs to hack into the network  
(easy) and  
call them up.  

So, as we continue with the PKI project, there are  
really very  
basic things on security of data that we as a nation  
haven't even  
dealt with.  
--  

Regards,  

Waithaka  
Ngigi  

Chief Executive Officer  
| Alliance  
Technologies | MCK Nairobi  
Synod  
Building  

T +  
254 (0)  
20 2333 471 |Office  
Mobile: +254 786 28 28 28 | M +  
254 737 811 000  

www.at.co.ke  

_______________________________________________  

kictanet mailing list  

kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke  

https://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/listinfo/kictanet  

Unsubscribe or change your options at  
https://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/options/kictanet/pkariuki%40gmail.com  

The Kenya ICT Action Network (KICTANet) is a  
multi-stakeholder platform for people and institutions  
interested and involved in ICT policy and regulation. The  
network aims to act as a catalyst for reform in the ICT  
sector in support of the national aim of ICT enabled growth  
and development.  

KICTANetiquette : Adhere to the same standards of acceptable  
behaviors online that you follow in real life: respect  
people's times and bandwidth, share knowledge, don't  
flame or abuse or personalize, respect privacy, do not spam,  
do not market your wares or  
qualifications.  
-----Inline Attachment Follows-----  

_______________________________________________  
kictanet mailing list  
kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke  
https://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/listinfo/kictanet  

Unsubscribe or change your options at https://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/options/kictanet/jwalu%40yahoo.com  

The Kenya ICT Action Network (KICTANet) is a  
multi-stakeholder platform for people and institutions  
interested and involved in ICT policy and regulation. The  
network aims to act as a catalyst for reform in the ICT  
sector in support of the national aim of ICT enabled growth  
and development.  

KICTANetiquette : Adhere to the same standards of acceptable  
behaviors online that you follow in real life: respect  
people's times and bandwidth, share knowledge, don't flame  
or abuse or personalize, respect privacy, do not spam, do  
not market your wares or qualifications.  
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://lists.kictanet.or.ke/pipermail/kictanet/attachments/20131031/0a301a4c/attachment.htm>