Social Implication of National Security RNSA Workshop

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Social Implication of National Security RNSA
Workshop

• The risk of public data availability on critical
  infrastructure protection
• Roba Abbas
• BICT (Hons) Candidate

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Literature clusters
Critical Infrastructure Literature -Physical
vs. cyber infrastructures -Infrastructure
interdependencies
Critical Infrastructure Protection Literature
-Recent events -CIP process
GAP
Public Data Availability Literature -Role of
ICTs -National security, open information access
privacy
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What is critical infrastructure?
Vital services contributing to the security
stability of a country

• In Australian context
• banking finance
• transport distribution
• energy utilities
• health
• the food supply
• communications

1. Cyber infrastructures
2. Infrastructure interdependencies must also be
   noted, that is, the relationship between the
   infrastructure

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What is critical infrastructure protection (CIP)?

• Safeguarding the identified services from
  potential harm, including physical and/or
  electronic attacks
• The process of protecting critical infrastructure
  has become increasingly important due to a number
  of recent events
• e.g. Y2K, 9/11, Bali
• Although the specific details of the activities
  vary, the stages of the CIP process are
  standardised

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What is public data availability?

• Refers to sensitive but unclassified data
• public records that may be accessed
• Includes both free and commercial information
• Since 9/11
• a direct link has been drawn between public data
  collection (facilitated by ICTs) and the act of
  terrorism

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Public data elements and their use

• Articles/ Documents
• Maps/ Photographs
• Statistical Information
• Transactions/ Records
• Personal information
• Community facilities
• Multimedia
• Phone/ Email/ IP Address

• Social service needs
• Competitive intelligence
• Geospatial intelligence
• Data mining
• Sabotage
• Cyberfraud
• Terrorism

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Previous studies

• Breeding (2003)
• Sensitive but Unclassified Information A Threat
  to Physical Security
• Weinmann (2006)
• Terror on the Internet The New Arena, The New
  Challenges
• Both describe the need for controlling access to
  public data, in order to maintain national
  security

How do we balance open information access and
national security concerns?
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Significance of study

• Terror was his doctrine, court told
• The alleged preparations included acquiring two
  maps of the grid under a false company name and
  downloading 38 aerial photographs of the defence
  sites
• Sydney Morning Herald article, Tuesday
  25th May 2005

• However
• ICTs can aid national security efforts
• Public data may be used for positive purposes

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Questions?
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Next steps

1. To identify the agencies supplying data across
   Australia
2. To create a geographic information system (GIS)
   for Wollongong Australia on critical
   infrastructure
3. To determine the potential misuse or threats of
   Objective 1 2 data being publicly available
4. To assess the level of community awareness
   related to public data availability

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2 important aspects of CIP process have been
ignored

• Community awareness
• Community awareness is required in the initial
  stages of the CIP process
• Some authors claim that lack of community
  awareness has contributed to the severity of the
  recent events

• Regional context
• Successful CIP requires the input of both federal
  and local governments
• Metropolitan cities have been the focus of CIP
  efforts
• Regional areas play an important role in the
  supply chain