Tag Archive for: sovereign

Understanding Russia’s “Sovereign Internet”: What Happens If Russia Isolates Itself from the Global Internet?

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Click here for Flashpoint’s coverage of the role of intelligence in Russia’s war on Ukraine.

Russia moves to control the information narrative

The Russian government ordered state-owned portals to connect to its state-controlled domain name system servers by March 11—and, to switch to Russian hosting providers and localize elements that may not in the future run on the websites. In reaction to sanctions against Russian banks by the US, the EU, and the UK—as well as (as of this publishing, unheeded) calls to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) to disconnect Russian top-level domains—authorities also instructed Russian financial institutions and other companies to replace security certificates that have been or will be withdrawn from them, with Russian certificates. 

This is the latest in a series of intentional steps to establish firmer control over the Russian internet, following its invasion of Ukraine. It also includes the blocking of access to several social media platforms and independent news sites in order to censor information about the war from reaching Russian citizens. 

Russia’s strategic motivation: Protection from cyber attackers

According to Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Chernenko these steps have been taken to protect Russia from cyber attacks. This is a plausible explanation given the fact that a vast majority of threat groups have sided with Ukraine during this war. Well known groups, such as Anonymous and AgainstTheWest, have been actively attacking and breaching Russian networks for weeks.

However, the steps prompted observers and Russian-speaking threat actors alike to speculate that Russia’s “disconnection” from the global internet was imminent. This would happen under a 2019 Law on Sovereign Internet. However, there have been questions about the feasibility and the usefulness of this move. According to Russia’s legislation, disconnecting Russian internet infrastructure from the global internet would be a defensive move, although this leaves a wide room for interpretation. In addition, it is presently unclear whether Russia meets the technical conditions for an effective disconnection. 

Below, we examine what…

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Sovereign quantum encryption in the cloud

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An Australian firm has announced a partnership with a global leader in encryption technology to roll out the nation’s first sovereign quantum encryption service.

AUCloud is one of a handful of companies trusted by governments worldwide to host secure sovereign cloud services.

To protect our private data and essential services such as hospitals, electricity and banking, the cloud provider on Wednesday announced a deal with Arqit to provide stronger, simpler encryption.

Genuine sovereign cloud services can protect citizens’ data and the content of data centres from being handed over to foreign powers, and help secure critical infrastructure against nosy or malicious hackers.

The recent trilateral alliance between Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States, known as AUKUS, has defence innovation and technology at its heart and aims to lift the allies’ game on cyber security, quantum computing, artificial intelligence (AI) and space technology.

“The world needs stronger, simpler encryption, and it is important that allied countries work together,” Arqit founder David Williams said.

Arqit’s Federated Quantum System (FQS) is designed for allied governments only.

The unique quantum encryption service makes the communications links of any networked device secure against current and future forms of attack – even from a quantum computer.

The market is every connected device, according to Arqit.

As one of Australia’s sovereign cloud Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) providers, AUCloud already serves federal, state and local governments and critical national industries.

Phil Dawson, managing director and co-founder of AUCloud, said the partnership with Arqit would deliver an immediate capability to customers in these and other enterprise sectors, including financial services, intelligence and defence.

Listed on the Australian stock exchange as Sovereign Cloud Holdings (SOV), AUCloud is independently certified to meet Australian Signals Directorate information security standards and handle protected data.

The company is also a member of the Defence Industry Security Program and is “certified strategic” as a cloud provider by the Digital Transformation Agency.

A consortium of Australian…

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WhatsApp, Facebook Malware Suit to Continue After 9th Circuit Denies Foreign Sovereign Immunity Claims

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A federal appellate panel sided with the WhatsApp messaging app and its parent company Facebook on Monday after denying a private, Israeli corporation’s claims of foreign sovereign immunity to dismiss a suit alleging it sent malware through WhatsApp’s server to mobile devices.

WhatsApp Inc. and Facebook Inc. filed a suit against the NSO Group Technologies Ltd. and its parent company, Q Cyber Technologies Ltd., in October 2019. NSO that designs and licenses surveillance technology to governments and government agencies for national security and law enforcement purposes.

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Vulnerabilities must be addressed through sovereign solutions

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140122 DIQld- EM Solutions, Yeronga
Designing and manufacturing satellite commuications products at EM Solutions, Yeronga, Queensland

By BEN GREENE

June 1, 2021

In some ways, Australia was fortunate it was a virus, not an adversary, that revealed the vulnerability of global supply chains and emphasised the need for our own sovereign capabilities. In the throes of the pandemic, the immediate interests of Australia’s supplier nations quickly overrode any contractual obligations, directly threatening our interests. While this was seen publicly through restricted access to ventilators and personal protective equipment, defence supply chains were similarly affected.

This crisis of supply occurred without the added difficulty of an aggressor mounting military operations to cut or disrupt our very long supply lines.

It is now clear that in any national security crisis, we must depend principally on our own resources. This experience provides a clear notion of sovereign capability as one that exists for the defence of Australia and for Australian interests, as its first priority, and without reference to, or approval from, any foreign entity.

What that looks like from a corporate perspective, is that:
● management and executive control are held by Australians;
● control of finances and profit-and-loss accountability is entirely within the local entity;
● the local entity has intellectual property control; and
● there are no obligations to support any parent entity’s defence offsets outside Australia, with transparent controls to ensure this is so.

These four key elements underpin national resilience by ensuring the capabilities we depend on are independent of foreign influence. They are the same conditions applied to sovereign capability by other advanced nations, including via Foreign Ownership, Control or Influence (FOCI) policies in the US. Importantly, they do not exclude foreign investment in, or ownership of, sovereign capability, nor do they prevent the use of foreign technology or foreign nationals working in Australia to support key capabilities.

Dr Ben Greene of EOS.
Dr Ben Greene of EOS.

These principles are applicable to every aspect of sovereign defence capability,…

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