A footnote

This is just a note without analysis on the episode of "Evil" and the NBN.

The case was reported in the SMH. The headline read as if it was an attack on the NBN and the body referred to the attacker having access to the "entire system".

Tony Abbott in a press conference asserted the hack alerts us to the fact the NBN is centralised and hence a security risk.

Malcolm Turnbull then said

This is a very, very serious wake-up call for the National Broadband Network and for the Government. In establishing a national network of this kind, there is a greater risk of security breaches being able to pervade the whole network. What we're hearing today from the AFP is that this man has effectively been able to map much, if not most of the NBN's existing infrastructure. Now if that were done when the NBN were fully built, that would be a really a very serious security issue - national security issue.

That ABC report also made it clear that NBN Co systems had not been compromised - the "entire system" that the hacker had accessed was that of the service provider to the NBN, not of the NBN.

The real issue here is the myth that the NBN represents a "network centralisation". The NBN Co’s percentage control of all Australian communications infrastructure once built will be LESS THAN what Telstra has now (it replaces the Telstra acess network only – Telstra’s backbone and mobile networks stay with it).

I'll provide some commentary later.

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