Chinese technology on Australian supercomputer sparks security concerns

Quote:The cutting edge National Computational Infrastructure (NCI) is based at the Australian National University and provides support to organisations including the CSIRO, Geoscience Australia and the Bureau of Meterology.Last week the Canberra research facility confirmed it would be buying new IT software and hardware from Lenovo, a Chinese owned company.In recent weeks defence officials at the Pentagon have expressed concerns about Lenovo, recommending its products not be used in some American military facilities.Those security concerns are shared by some scientists at NCI who have told the ABC they are worried about the move.Peter Jennings, the Director of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, said the ANU scientists have good reason to express alarm.

MrJennings Wrote:I think what we really need to know here is what steps did the ANU take to satisfy itself that these systems don't have installed computer back doors that can later be used by outside actors to steal Australian Intellectual property,

Quote:This year the Australian Cyber Security Centre Threat report acknowledged aforeign government had managed to install malicious software known as malware on the Australian Bureau of Meterology's computer systemto steal sensitive documents.Theattack which occurred last year also breached sensitive systemsacross the Federal Government.Peter Jennings believes the Government's cyber security watchdog needed to again be called in."Just as the Australian Signals Directorate was brought in to look at the Bureau of Meterology and also the Bureau of Statistics it should now look at this computing capability at the ANU to assure everybodythatAustralia's intellectual property is not at risk," he said.In a statement the ANU insisted stringent protocols had been followed."ANU is fully satisfied with all due diligence associated with the decision to appoint XENON Systems to supply a Lenovo NeXtScale system for the NCI's facilities," the university told the ABC.The university has also pointed out Lenovo was listed as an authorised government supplier and added "Lenovo demonstrated to NCI that all of the company's firmware (low level software) was developed in the United States.""The firmware is encrypted by a digital signature which acts as a fingerprint to prevent tampering," it said.The ABC has also contacted Lenovo and the Federal Government for comment.