Spooks propose govt comms security company

By Staff Writer for Intel
Johannesburg, 22 Aug 2002

A law to be tabled in Parliament soon will create a company dedicated to protecting governmental communications and combating foreign hackers, the Ministry of Intelligence says.

Lindiwe Sisulu, the minister responsible for bodies such as the National Intelligence Agency, this week says the Cabinet has in principle approved the "ComSec Bill", one of five pieces of intelligence legislation to be tabled in Parliament during this session.

ComSec will create a company named Electronic Communications Security, an "agency to provide secure electronic communications services to all government departments and state organs in a bid to make us less vulnerable to hostile hackers as has been the experience in other countries", the ministry says.

Sisulu says the law, with others that will establish a National Academy of Intelligence, for example, will help SA gain an edge over competitors.

The ComSec Bill will be one among many pieces of information security legislation under consideration. The recently enacted Electronic Communications and Transactions law makes provision for the prosecution of cyber criminals and gives government the right to subscribe security measures for "critical databases".

An amendment to the SITA Act, which established the State IT Agency, is to make that agency responsible to oversee all government IT security. And the controversial Interception and Monitoring Bill will create the infrastructure and processes to allow police and intelligence agencies to intercept cellphone conversations and e-mail.