Fergie's Tech Blog

ITU Criticised For Its Role in Internet Snooping

Via heise Security Online.

At EuroDIG, the first European Dialogue on Internet Governance, the scientists and experts of the Council of Europe have sharply criticised the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) for acting behind closed doors in its initiatives towards cybersecurity standardization. Bertrand de la Chapelle, godfather of the first EuroDIG on behalf of the French government, said EuroDIG should tell the ITU to allow all interest groups to participate in discussing new technology standards. The recent meeting in Strasbourg emphasized the idea of cooperation between governments, the industry and users as one of the central points to be presented at the UN Internet Governance Forum in Hyderabad.

Just recently, the ITU's work on standards for back-tracing IP addresses caused something of a furore. Yet, said Bill Drake, a scientist at the Center for International Governance at the Graduate School in Geneva, this work was only a tiny part of the work being done in the sensitive area of IT security. He warned that China, Russia and the USA could become the new axis of evil, pushing forward the integration of new ways of snooping on the internet. There was in his view an ambitious agenda extending beyond technical questions all the way up to legal regulations to counter cybercrime.

posted by Fergie @ 10/27/2008 01:41:00 PM