SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
Submitted via IRC for AnonymousLuser
UK to toughen telecoms security controls to shrink 5G risks – TechCrunch
Amid ongoing concerns about security risks posed by the involvement of Chinese tech giant Huawei in 5G supply, the U.K. government has published a review of the telecoms supply chain, which concludes that policy and regulation in enforcing network security needs to be significantly strengthened to address concerns.
However, it continues to hold off on setting an official position on whether to allow or ban Huawei from supplying the country’s next-gen networks — as the U.S. has been pressurizing its allies to do.
Giving a statement in parliament this afternoon, the U.K.’s digital minister, Jeremy Wright, said the government is releasing the conclusions of the report ahead of a decision on Huawei so that domestic carriers can prepare for the tougher standards it plans to bring in to apply to all their vendors.
“The Review has concluded that the current level of protections put in place by industry are unlikely to be adequate to address the identified security risks and deliver the desired security outcomes,” he said. “So, to improve cyber security risk management, policy and enforcement, the Review recommends the establishment of a new security framework for the UK telecoms sector. This will be a much stronger, security based regime than at present.
“The foundation for the framework will be a new set of Telecoms Security Requirements for telecoms operators, overseen by Ofcom and government. These new requirements will be underpinned by a robust legislative framework.”
Wright said the government plans to legislate “at the earliest opportunity” — to provide the regulator with stronger powers to to enforcement the incoming Telecoms Security Requirements, and to establish “stronger national security backstop powers for government.”
The review suggests the government is considering introducing GDPR-level penalties for carriers that fail to meet the strict security standards it will also be bringing in.
First policy response will be 'soft', common cybersecurity standards. Then regulations, with strict standards and #GDPR like fines. New powers allowing to compel telecoms to do something. And work to increase diversity. pic.twitter.com/nBLWneFUDK
— Lukasz Olejnik (@lukOlejnik) July 22, 2019
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 24 2019, @04:33PM
Nobody said that the system had to be switched on at all. *I* say it is, so go and prove me wrong! (good luck)
But from a purely theoretical viewpoint you are corrsct, so lets look closer.
Even if the system were active, to exfiltrate data at all would mean a very delicate balancing act between on the one hand heating the sphere's outside fast enough to be observable by a reasonably short-lived observer (lets say, a typical human with a normal lifespan, much less attention span), and on the other hand doing the heating with an inside energy differential compatible with continued functioning of telecoms equipment over said timespan.
The faster you try to communicate, the more fried your components are going to be.
I'm not bored enough to actually calculate the attainable bandwidth, but consider this:
In temperate european latitudes (say Britain, France, Germany, Poland), "two feet deep" is considered to be safe from freezing your-round. Three feet deep, and the soil temperature will hardly vary, staying at the long-term yearly average instead (i.e.: bandwidth 1 sine wave per year). You could extrapolate that linearly and arrive at a very small bandwidth already ... but we're talking about a sphere, so your energy requirements go up roughly with radius cubed (because you gotta heat the volume).
On the other hand, normal telecoms equipment is usually specified to operate from -20 to +65 degrees (the sensible ones, lest you ask). So the maxmimum temperature swing you are allowed to create your heat pulse is 85degrees, rather sharply limiting your energy output available for heating.
Re-cooling would be a of roughly similar speed, most likely. Several factors are coming into play here, among them the efficiency of thermal machines and the second law of thermodynamics, making it even more difficult to calculate, IMVHO, than the heating.
If anybody at all is still reading, I'd be rather fascinated (after having written this, though still too lazy) at seeing somone try to tackle even part of the required calculations :-)
But do keep it reasonable: standard COTS materials (especially the concrete and rebar! No nanotubes!), standard humans and no immortal aliens. Yes, I do realize that the parent poster specifically mentioned aliens, but I'm excluding them until he presents a live, non-contrived specimen :-P