Parliamentary security boss says no specific action taken to close Microsoft 'back door' following Prism revelations

This article is more than 6 years old

This article is more than 6 years old

A senior official has left open the prospect that parliamentary communications in Australia could be monitored by US intelligence through a “back door” provided by Microsoft operating systems.

Eija Seittenranta, who is responsible for ensuring network security in Australia’s parliamentary IT systems, told the Senate finance and public administration committee on Monday that no specific action had been taken to secure the parliamentary network against surveillance by US agencies under the Prism program.

“No we wouldn’t have taken any specific action,” Seittenranta told the committee.

Greens senator Scott Ludlam asked Seittenranta whether, given that answer, Australian MPs and staff should assume their IT communications were exposed routinely to intrusion.

She replied: “Yes, I suppose you should be able to assume that. It probably should be noted that our network is not a protected network, it is unclassified.” She qualified the answer by saying ministers had their IT provided by their home departments – they were not on the general parliamentary network unless they elected to be.

Ludlam persisted, inquiring whether ordinary MPs and staff should then assume their correspondence could be monitored by US intelligence via a “back door” in Microsoft systems.

Seittenranta told the committee her IT team had not taken any action to close the back door, and would be reliant on industry to provide the baseline level of network security. She said her team would be reliant on advice from the Australian Signals Directorate (ASD). “We don’t have the technical skills to create patches,” she said.

She suggested the revelations around the the Prism program were rumours. “We are aware there are rumoured to be things like that around,” she said.

Ludlam said the program was not a rumour when there were documents describing its operations in the public domain. He pointed to ongoing revelations from the Guardian and a substantial number of other major media outlets.

Ludlam asked whether, if China had run a Prism-style surveillance operation allowing Australian communication to be shared with Chinese agencies, her department would have sought advice. “We would have sought advice,” she said.

What about the US then, Ludlam asked. “We haven’t had validation that exposure exists,” Seittenranta said. She said exposure by the NSA was not a “top of mind” issue.

After giving evidence for a period of time, she was joined by a colleague from the Department of Parliamentary Services (DPS), Steve McCauley, the assistant secretary of the infrastructure services branch.

McCauley contradicted his colleague. He told the hearing DPS was aware of the concerns around Prism, and the Australian parliamentary system was “patched”.

“We are aware of such communications. We are patched. There are no outbound messages that are sent to Microsoft … that we are not aware of,” McCauley told the estimates hearing. “We work with ASD, they also monitor all outbound messages in conjunction with us in a partnership.”

Ludlam told McCauley his evidence was “somewhat at odds with what your colleague told us.”

“I’m advised we have specific patches to negate these things,” McCauley said. He said Australia would be in control of what data went elsewhere, and added: “I’m not aware of us sending any such data to Microsoft.”

Ludlam asked whether parliamentary IT communications were then protected, either by patches, or by the firewall preventing data traffic going elsewhere.

“I would have to take that on notice and follow it up for you. Not specifically for Prism that I’m aware of but again there are processes in place that would prohibit those types of requests going out,” McCauley said.

But he said his security team had discussed Prism and its implications with ASD. McCauley said he was not aware of mitigating actions that had been taken.

Ludlam’s line of questioning reflects a growing concern among Australian MPs about the extent to which communications are being monitored by US intelligence.

The Greens have challenged the major parties to support a parliamentary inquiry into Australia’s participation in spying with the US – replicating investigations currently being held in the UK, Spain, Germany and the US.

The South Australian independent senator, Nick Xenophon, has also been active on this issue since the first revelations about Prism were published by the Guardian.