[kictanet] Fwd: [Internet Policy] Security architectures will balkanise the Internet if nothing else

[Barrack Otieno]

Listers,

This might be an interesting conversation to some.

Regards

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: parminder <parminder at itforchange.net>
Date: Wed, 11 Oct 2017 12:44:43 +0530
Subject: [Internet Policy] Security architectures will balkanise the
Internet if nothing else
To: "internetpolicy at elists.isoc.org" <internetpolicy at elists.isoc.org>


Symantec says it wont open its source code for security inspection to
"foreign govs"
<http://in.reuters.com/article/us-usa-cyber-russia-symantec/exclusive-symantec-ceo-says-source-code-reviews-pose-unacceptable-risk-idINKBN1CF2SB?utm_source=Mailer&utm_medium=ET_batch&utm_campaign=etcio_news_2017-10-11>.
Kaspersky, the Russian security software firm, is now increasingly being
shunned in the US (not only in the US govbut also outside
<http://fortune.com/2017/09/08/best-buy-kaspersky-russia-hacking-fears/>
) even when it has offered its source code for inspection for US gov
<https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/07/03/kaspersky_repeats_offer_america_can_see_my_source_code/>
......

Of course, US wants the world to trust it and its global firms even
without seeing the source code of their software offerings (BTW, it is
an important provision of TPP's ecom chapter) but it will not trust
foreign firms even if they offer source code inspection.US wants us to
think nothing about what Snowden told us, and we otherwise know through
many different means. But Russia's  transgressions into US's
informational space are evidently absolutely inexcusable, which is what
the world should really focus on. .. How long will the hypocrisy last,
is the question... Being rich and powerful allows considerable room for
indulging in such hypocrisies, but sooner or latter security will be
considered too important an issue by all countries for them to
countenance it indefinitely. This would happen even with the US being
able to successfully manage many front groups globally in the Internet
space to do its PR.

Not every country will be able to develop its own digital security
architecture, but one can well see all non dominant countries moving
within the "sphere if influence" of the few dominant one, US, China, and
to some extent, Russia. That would be an unfortunate thing, but that is
what we are clearly headed towards. Such "digital spheres of influence"
(which would be more solidly and structurally separate than the soft
word "influence" conveys) will develop from two directions  -- one
digital security related, as discussed, and the other digital business
and trade related, which logics of course combine very well.

parminder




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Barrack O. Otieno
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