INDUSTRY COMMENT

Outsourcing of IT Services Threatens Australia’s Security

Frank Rees

A ustralian Government plans to contract out information technology services could

compromise national security, a defence expert at the Australian National University (ANU) has warned. In April, the Government said that it would put out to tender Federal Government infrastructure, including computer mainframes and desktop equipment in a hid to improve cost efficiency.

Speaking to the ANU Reporter, a research fellow in the ANUS Strategic and Defence Studies Centre, Dr

“not enough was known about information vulnerabilities in the Department of Defence and other Government departments”

Adam Cobb, said that not enough was known about information vulnerabilities in the Department of Defence and other Government departments. Possible defence weaknesses include the use of the Internet to generate misinformation during war; foreign software

developers leaking vulnerable information about military equipment; and hackers breaking into

Government computer systems to gain intelligence for extortion and espionage.

Computer systems in the private and public sector are equally vulnerable to attacks from hackers. Dr Cobb argued that the Government had a difficult enough time defending complicated and dispersed computer networks against attack, without the added complication of outsourcing. Moreover, outsourcing would run counter to a 1997 Defence Efficiency Review which called for a single, centralized IT organization for the Defence Department.

Outsourcing would increase the decentralization of information management at a time when a more centralized strategy was badly needed.

He noted that outsourcing had already raised some fundamental questions in the Department of Defence. A department source said that the military recently outsourced the development of defence software

“defence weaknesses include the use of the Internet to generate misinformation during war; foreign software developers leaking vulnerable information”

to Israel. Israel in turn outsourced the development of some components to China.

Dr Cobb said that the Department of Defence believes strongly that information must be centralized and kept in-house with strict controls, and questions why the same logic would not apply to other areas of Government. “Those in Government in favour of outsourcing departments handle an array of sensitive information, from tax returns and medical records to social security payments, and Dr Cobb expressed concern that the 1988 Privacy Act had no provision for outsourced information and privacy issues would be handled in private contracts between the Government and the company.

Computer Fraud 81 Security August 1997 0 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd

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