MEDIA RELEASE
Sydney, 08 December, 2008 - In response to the
Australian Government proposed mandatory Internet filtering plan,
headed up by the Hon. Minister for Broadband, Communications and
the Digital Economy, Senator Stephen Conroy; The Australian
Information Security Association (AISA) puts forward our position
on the matter.
As an Information Technology body specialising in Information
Security and Assurance, it is AISA's opinion that the primary
objectives of the government plan to block unwanted
content, will not work effectively, potentially wasting
millions of dollars of tax-payer money.
Individuals who are motivated to seek unwanted
content, will, with a 100% certainty in AISA's opinion,
continue be able to do so by bypassing the filtering in a number of
trivial and not so trivial ways. (We do not wish to expand on the
techniques that can and will be used, as we do not want to be seen
as providing advice or guidance on how this can be done).
Internet filtering technologies are far from being considered
reliable in terms of detection and blockage of unwanted
content.
The system will not be reliable and will not deliver the
objectives of the government to a level expected nor practical to
ensure [the] liberties of the country or access speeds required, to
keep Australia competitive in the global online arena. (Though
acknowledging, the government has not released full and exact
requirements on how success of the program would be
measured).
The proposed mandatory Internet filtering will degrade Internet
access speeds proportional to the bandwidth individuals and
businesses subscribe too. When the filtering technology does not
work to acceptable levels, will individuals and businesses alike
accept a noticeable downgrade in Internet access rates? AISA
believes not. We don't have world class Internet access rates
now.
AISA believes the government of today has good intentions,
however, by adopting a censorship model, individual freedoms are
also being endangered, and once freedoms start to be revoked, it is
unlikely that they are ever returned to positions of how they were
in the past. The risk AISA sees is that entities with their own
agendas and belief systems, which include governments of the day,
will arbitrarily decide upon what is acceptable and what is not
acceptable to be [accessed] on the Internet - contrary to how our
democratic society works. No other democracy has such a program in
place to our knowledge.
AISA recommends that the Australian Government reconsider their
position on this. AISA does not stand alone in taking this
position. One only need review coverage of this through press
releases, other representative bodies, blogs and other media to
confirm this is a very unpopular direction being taken by the
Australian Government.
About AISA
The Australian Information Security Association (AISA) is an
Australian representative industry body for Information Security
professionals. Formed in 1999, AISA is focused on promoting
awareness and understanding of information security issues in
business and society as a whole in an unbiased and independent
manner.
With over 700 members, AISA is the region's largest association of
Information Security Professionals, attracting a broad membership
base from technical specialists, CIOs, CSOs through to CEOs.