On Sep 21, 9:13am, Matthew Gream wrote:
- The Defence Signals Directorate (DSD) is our primary SIGINT/COMSEC agency. Much like the NSA (but on a smaller scale, their HQ in Canberra consists of 3 or 4 buildings only, surrounded by razor fencing though and my "driver" swears the radio went dead as I stepped out for a closer look :>)
I don't know about that, but I do know that the building is completely TEMPEST shielded. It was custom built for DSD 2-3 years ago, when they moved to Canberra from Melbourne.
they provide COMSEC advice to the Govt. They are also the ones that deal with authorising crypto products for export under s.13B & 13E as mentioned above.
DSD provides both COMSEC and COMPUSEC, and is surprisingly open about SIGINT too. I must admit that I have found them to be surprisingly helpful on most occasions, although they do take security VERY seriously.
So far there don't seem to be any moves here in Australia to change what legislation is already in place. Though, I must admit that I haven't gone into depth on this and am relying only upon what the Department of Transport and Communications and our Attorney General's Department have told me [by letter and telephone]. Ian Farqhar might have some comments on the Law Enforcement Access Committee. ^^^^^^
Law Enforcement Advisory Committee. That might have been my mistake, as I once did miscall them that. Not much, no. They're heavily secretive, and my understanding is that they consist of representatives of the Attorney General's department, ASIO and the Australian Federal Police. They were mentioned to me in passing as one body which might have a lot of interest in controlling domestic cryptography, and I also understand that they were involved in the deliberations over the A5/1 and A5/2 decision (which, I am told by Austel - Telecommunications watchdog - was quite different to what was reported on the Internet). I must admit to finding myself quite irritated that bodies like the LEAC (which are, after all, advising government on domestic policy) are so secretive. Ian.