Aussie Telco Telstra Agreed To Spy For America

An anonymous reader writes "Australian telecommunications giant Telstra has for a decade been storing huge volumes of electronic communications carried between Asia and America for surveillance by U.S. intelligence agencies. This includes not just the metadata, but the actual content of emails, online messages and phone calls. With the blessing of the Australian government Telstra agreed to route data through a 'U.S. point of contact through a secure storage facility on U.S. soil that was staffed exclusively by U.S. citizens.' The contract was prompted by Telstra's decision to expand its business in Asia by taking control of hundreds of kilometers of undersea telecommunications cables. The deal started under the Liberal Party and continued under Labor. The Greens have demanded an explanation."

Comments

I'm not an expert

[lesincompetent]

I don't know but... isn't THAT some kind of treason or betrayal of your fellow countrymen or something?

Re:I'm not an expert

[Anonymous Coward]

If Australia doesn't harshly punish the people responsible, you will know they're one of the boys.

Re:I'm not an expert

[Trepidity]

Well, this was reportedly done "with the blessing of the Australian government", so the odds of the Australian government punishing Telestra (or themselves) seem low.

Re:I'm not an expert

[Anonymous Coward]

From wikipedia:

Section 80.1 of the Criminal Code, contained in the schedule of the Australian Criminal Code Act 1995,[3] defines treason as follows:
"A person commits an offence, called treason, if the person:
(a) causes the death of the Sovereign, the heir apparent of the Sovereign, the consort of the Sovereign, the Governor-General or the Prime Minister; or
(b) causes harm to the Sovereign, the Governor-General or the Prime Minister resulting in the death of the Sovereign, the Governor-General or the Prime Minister; or
(c) causes harm to the Sovereign, the Governor-General or the Prime Minister, or imprisons or restrains the Sovereign, the Governor-General or the Prime Minister; or
(d) levies war, or does any act preparatory to levying war, against the Commonwealth; or
(e) engages in conduct that assists by any means whatever, with intent to assist, an enemy:
(i) at war with the Commonwealth, whether or not the existence of a state of war has been declared; and
(ii) specified by Proclamation made for the purpose of this paragraph to be an enemy at war with the Commonwealth; or
(f) engages in conduct that assists by any means whatever, with intent to assist:
(i) another country; or
(ii) an organisation;
that is engaged in armed hostilities against the Australian Defence Force; or
(g) instigates a person who is not an Australian citizen to make an armed invasion of the Commonwealth or a Territory of the Commonwealth; or
(h) forms an intention to do any act referred to in a preceding paragraph and manifests that intention by an overt act."

Re:I'm not an expert

[Shirogitsune]

*hands a Kit-Kat bar to nickmh*

Re:I'm not an expert

[L4t3r4lu5]

... the odds of the Australian government punishing Telestra (or themselves) seem low.

Your absolutely right. It's down to the populace to hold their government accountable. Vote them out of power, and make sure the next party you elect puts protections in place to ensure this never happens again.

Re:I'm not an expert

[thegarbz]

Not really. It's common knowledge that the Australian Government has an even more intimate relationship with the United States Government than Monica Lewinski.

Re:I'm not an expert

[FriendlyLurker]

Unfortunately the two dominant parties are all on-board with this shit. Unless there is a mass migration to third parties (Like Greens, Wikileaks party, Pirate Party...) that form a coalition bigger than Labor/Liberal together, then the two main parties will just continue to do as they have been the last few years - voting in police state expansion of ASIO powers, giving Tesltra the all clear to send private sensitive Aussie data to foreign corporations, etc. Admitedly Aussies have more chance of handing power to third parties than the does US - but it is a reeeally long shot when Rupert Murdoch controls 70%+ of the countries media (and by extension, their hearts and minds).

Re:I'm not an expert

[jonwil]

The greens have a stated policy of opposing internet filtering and censorship and supporting net neutrality.

Re:I'm not an expert

[wmac1]

It is officially an act of spying on your own country. I don't have enough stomach to read the news these days.

Re:I'm not an expert

[Dodgy G33za]

Keep drinking the Murdoch Kool Aid

Re:I'm not an expert

[L4t3r4lu5]

We thought the same in the UK until we had the current Coalition government. Yes it's not ideal to have a major and minor party (Conservative and Liberal, respectively) but at least it's one step closer to actually representing the will of the majority instead of the most popular of the choices available.

I keep saying that we need a proportional representation system, but the detractors always say that the right wing will get a place of power. Well, that's part of the public opinion. There's also the significant majority who aren't aligned that way, so we still end up with sane minds getting things done. The only difference is that 35% can't rule the other 65% just because the former got the largest single proportion of the votes. That just boggles my mind.

Re:I'm not an expert

[Anonymous Coward]

Did Obama not say something similar before he got in?

Re:I'm not an expert

[c0lo]

Unfortunately the two dominant parties are all on-board with this shit.

Vote Wikileaks Australian Party or the Greens. I'd rather have a hang-up Parliament again than be spied on for the benefit of US spooks.

Worse?

[coofercat]

For Australians, I'd imagine this news to be worse than Edward Snowden reporting that the NSA blanket-monitors the US. I mean, monitoring is one thing, but actively sending full content to another nation seems like another entirely.

That said, I think we know what will actually happen about all of this, even with whatever public outrage it incites.

Re:Worse?

[Cenan]

The Guardian disagrees with you.

The agreement, first reported by Crikey who obtained the documents, gave the US government permission to store "domestic communications" – with the possibility of using them for spying – using the underwater cables owned by Reach.

Domestic communications were defined in the agreement as communications within the US but could also extend to communications which "originate or terminate" in America, meaning Australian communications with America could have potentially been subject to the agreement.

The Slashdot summary is, as is usual, fails to highlight the really interesting part (not that two consecutive governments approved this isn't interesting)

Telstra also agreed to report to the US government every three months on whether any foreign non-government entities had asked for access to their communications, and complete a compliance report every year which could not be accessed using freedom of information laws.

Oh really? How is that global fight for freedom going for you guys?

The points of contact were to be American citizens and the agreement also stopped Telstra and Reach, which is based in Hong Kong, from complying with any country's laws that certain data should be destroyed.

51% sure, or how was that?

Re:Worse?

[AHuxley]

If your looking for some of the Australia links in map form try:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australia-Japan_Cable (Telstra, BT, Verizon Business, Softbank)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SEA-ME-WE_3_(cable_system) ~Jakarta, Indonesia to Perth, Australia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/REACH_Global_Services
http://www.pccwglobal.com/images/stories/brochures/Inf_map_lk_201203.pdf
Basically this is a huge peering network that allows the US gov to keep an eye on all data of a network wrt to Asia/Australia networks.
The text of the agreement linked from http://www.crikey.com.au/2013/07/12/telstras-deal-with-the-devil-fbi-access-to-its-undersea-cables/ seems to point to "any customers" vs a simple "lawful interception" to a foreign country (US).
Be fun to see some Australians legal standing respond to this:
Will they try superior orders? ASIO/AG dept made me do it?
Would an Australian of ordinary sense and understanding know it to be an invasion of privacy?

Re:Worse?

[Dodgy G33za]

Apart from anything else I want to know why a company in which I own a shitload of shares is keeping information from me. These "compliance activities" cost money and may breach Australian law. And now they may well be damaging the brand.

In Soviet Earth

[Anonymous Coward]

Everyone Spies for Murica (or we will FREE the shit out of your government....even faster if you have oil)

Re:In Soviet Earth

[HangingChad]

or we will FREE the shit out of your government

I love the smell of laser guided democracy in the morning!

Smells like...victory.

helping us

[beefoot]

NSA is building a huge database to help us to help ourselves. With the data that they have, they can easily tell me what I want for lunch today or tomorrow. Or better yet, do my job for me. I can relax at the beach all day long watching bikini babes.

Hook me up NSA

[buck-yar]

I'd like to spy on some people, give me access damnit!

How long before the current administration uses this against their political foes, if they haven't been already? They send the IRS after political opponents, why would the NSA be any different?

Re:This is why Subs can cut fiber cables

[stewsters]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2013/mar/28/egypt-undersea-cable-arrests

"Egyptian naval forces have arrested three scuba divers who they say were trying to cut an undersea cable off the port of Alexandria that provides one-third of all internet capacity between Europe and Egypt.
However the navy who captured the men had no explanation of who they were working for, where they came from or why they would want to disrupt Egypt's internet communications."

I'm guessing they were planning on adding a bit of hardware in the line but messed up.

Re:Vague

[buck-yar]

And you're not in control of your encrypted data if you used Microsoft.

smell the glove

[PopeRatzo]

Geez, Australia really is our bitch, ain't it?

You folks down there must be really proud.

Re:smell the glove

[Anonymous Coward]

You say that as if "we" had any input on (or even knowledge of) what was going on. Logically, if "we" are completely oblivious as to what's happening, then "we" aren't the people making it happen.

The Greens?

[thegarbz]

The Greens demand an explanation do they? Do they sleep through their political careers or something? It's basically common knowledge that Australia has bent over backwards for our American allies whenever the opportunities arose. We gladly and blindly followed the USA into a war about nothing, and certainly nothing that benefited Australia.

What's a bit of wire fraud in the grand scheme of things?

Explanation?

[msobkow]

The explanation is simple. The US considers themselves the world's police men, the world's legal system, and the world's judge, jury, and executioner. They do not and will not stop at anything, including breaking their own laws, to achieve domination.

Their society has degraded from one of freedom to a classic, textbook case of the nationalistic fervour, corporatism, and militarism of the fascists of yore. But as soon as you say "fascist", you're dismissed as "exagerating", despite the fact that modern US society displays all the traits of fascism right down to the surveillance and police state mentality.

You can see the nationalistic fervour in the way that US society has calmly ignored the whole whistle blowing over the surveillance led by the US government around the world. As far as US citizens seem to be concerned, their government can do no wrong.

Re:Explanation?

[TheGratefulNet]

the media, in the US, are puppets. they know who their daddy is and they won't cross him. or expose him for the wrong-doer that he is.

people in the US are mostly kept in the dark. we don't get news, we get entertainment that calls itself news. anything that could bite the hand won't be reported.

and so, americans are kept dumb and out-of-the-loop. then again, half of us who know about all this nastiness and spying STILL want to deny it or defend the gov for 'keeping us safe'.

I don't think there's anything unique about america, in this. any country's people would act the same way.

the core issue is about power and corruption and human nature. its impossible to resist this kind of power.

I'm not excusing it; but I'm just trying to explain why things are the way they are, now. the government essentially controls the media (indirectly). control the media and you are well on your way to controlling the populations' thoughts.

Re:Explanation?

[drinkypoo]

Everybody knows what's best for you. And they'll make sure you know it, too.

The USA just happens to be in power right now due in part to the wealth of natural resources and in part due to a series of shrewd decisions, like selling aluminum and fuel (among other interesting things) to the Axis before joining the Allies at just the right moment to really maximize their profit, as well as hiring (and spiriting) away the most successful scientists from the Third Reich. Right now, we have the money and the oil and the power. I presume that this is why we are so against progress; if things move ahead, we may well lose our advantages and simply be one nation among many.

Re: The Great Vacuum of America

[Unordained]

I think I saw a /.'er link to this just a few days ago ...
http://www.lawfareblog.com/2011/07/what-ben-franklin-really-said/