[kictanet] Vodafone admits that some governments have a direct link to their network for snooping

[Ngigi Waithaka]

Ali,

This is the way I see it:
1. It's almost a forgone conclusion that Governments will listen in on
communications between citizens; if the NSA could collect Americans private
communications without court-orders and this with all the Bills of Rights
in place, then what chance do other countries & Angela Merkel have?

2.What worries me more about the Vodafones of this world is that, their
primary allegiance is not to the countries where they do business, but to
their motherland, UK. Who would like to bet whether #G#H#C#Q# listens in on
private communications from the Safaricom/Vodafone Network? Every
Government Officials communication including our President's is fair game.

3. If then we contract the same Safaricom/Vodafone to build for us a
'Secure' Communications Network, you can bet that every router, switch, and
Server that will be deployed with have pre-built backdoors just in-case
they will need to be used in the future.

So, if indeed we know all the above, why go ahead and contract
Safaricom/Vodafone to build our security network? Is it the lesser evil?

4. One of the reasons cited by GoK to single-source with Safaricom is that
it is the only organization that is affliated to GoK that can do this.
Which is exactly not true as I believe we do have a pretty significant
shareholding in Orange and there is nothing as good as a competing offer to
get you best value.

And a different angle to this, does our police really need an independent
network (which also happens to be the bulk of the Ksh 15B that we'll be
paying for?). Instead of building a single network and putting all our
anti-terrorism 'eggs' in it, would it not have been more prudent and less
expensive to use the already existing networks but with an added security
layer and achieve the exact same result?

Rent the networks from anyone who has capacity (Safaricom, Orange, Yu etc)
build your layer on top and you don't have to worry about 4G, 5G, 6G... As
they upgrade, you upgrade.

Regards


On Fri, Jun 6, 2014 at 12:46 PM, Ali Hussein via kictanet <
kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke> wrote:

> Listers
>
> In view of the debate about the security tender awarded to Safaricom and
> now in contention within the parliamentary committee responsible for this
> its incumbent upon all of us in the industry that we understand this issue
> deeper.
>
> See below:-
>
>
> http://www.businessinsider.com/r-vodafone-says-governments-have-direct-access-to-eavesdrop-in-some-countries-2014-06
>
> I'm also curious to know what the TOR for this tender was. I'm all open to
> the government securing our borders against our enemies but we also must
> know what these parameters of 'snooping' are.
>
> *Ali Hussein*
>
> +254 770 906375 / 0713 601113
>
> Twitter: @AliHKassim
>
> Skype: abu-jomo
>
> LinkedIn: http://ke.linkedin.com/in/alihkassim
> <http://ke.linkedin.com/in/alihkassim>
>
> Blog: www.alyhussein.com
>
> "I fear the day technology will surpass human interaction. The world will
> have a generation of idiots".  ~ Albert Einstein
>
> Sent from my iPad
>
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-- 
*Regards,*

*Wait**haka 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
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