[governance] International Telecommunication Union criticised for its role in internet snooping

[Rui Correia]

27.10.2008 13:35

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International Telecommunication Union criticised for its role in internet
snooping

At EuroDIG, the first European Dialogue on Internet
Governance<http://www.eurodig.org/>,
the scientists and experts of the Council of Europe have sharply criticised
the International Telecommunication
Union<http://www.itu.int/net/home/index.aspx>(ITU) for acting behind
closed doors in its initiatives towards
cybersecurity standardization. Bertrand de la
Chapelle<http://www.itu.int/osg/spu/forum/intgov04/bios/delachapelle-bio.html>,
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 <http://www.intgovforum.org/cms/> in Hyderabad.

  Just recently, the ITU's work on standards for back-tracing IP
addresses<http://www.heise-online.co.uk/networks/ITU-discussing-enhanced-tracing-of-IP-addresses--/news/111532>caused
something of a furore. Yet, said Bill
Drake <http://graduateinstitute.ch/corporate/drake_en.html>, a scientist at
the Center for International Governance <http://graduateinstitute.ch/cig> 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.

If you had access to the documents, Drake said, you could see everything
that was going on, but the ITU was not an open organisation. Drake's
criticism was echoed by other representatives of non-governmental
organisations, complaining that draft standards in domains that were of
great significance for all users, such as identity management, were not
being made available to the public or to interested circles. Drake warned
that ITU member countries and its member firms might thus be setting the
agenda for the ways and means in which the internet could be used in future.
When he mentioned possible problems with the work of the ITU to
non-governmental organisations, he said, they dismissed the ITU as a
powerless "dinosaur". But he recommended by contrast that European
governments and organizations should make a clear demand for more
transparency from the ITU. If Europe did not do this, he stressed, neither
the USA, Russia, nor China could be expected to do so.

Thomas Schneider of the Swiss Office for Communications pointed out that,
during the last general meeting of the ITU, the so called Plenipotentiary
Conference of the Member Countries, a series of European countries had
insisted, jointly with Switzerland, on the ITU experimentally allowing
public access to the technology documents. The ITU had now carried out a
series of consultations, he said, but each time only a handful of experts
had spoken up. If the Europeans did not get involved in this process, it was
to some extent their problem.

Alexander Seger, head of the Council of Europe's Division of Economic Crime,
expressed further criticism of the ITU. Up to a year ago, he said, the
experts of the Council of Europe had worked together quite well with the ITU
as the organisation commissioned with following up on the World Summit on
the Information Society <http://www.itu.int/wsis/index.html>. But, ever
since the ITU had published its cybersecurity agenda, there had been
enormous problems with such cooperation. Seger demanded that the ITU return
to its role as an organizer of the process. The Council of Europe is also
concentrating heavily on the topic of security as a custodian of the Cybercrime
Convention <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cybercrime_Convention>.

*See also:*

   - EU to take action against "cyberbullying" and
"cybergrooming"<http://www.heise-online.co.uk/news/EU-to-take-action-against-cyberbullying-and-cybergrooming--/111757>

(*Monika Ermert*) (jk <jk at ct.heise.de>/c't)

-- 
________________________________________________


Rui Correia
Advocacy, Human Rights, Media and Language Consultant
2 Cutten St
Horison
Roodepoort-Johannesburg,
South Africa
Tel/ Fax (+27-11) 766-4336
Mobile (+27) (0) 84-498-6838
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