Australian gvts crippled with purchases of cheap infected hardware

Shadow Defense Minister David Johnston will seek to introduce new cybersecurity auditing powers into the Trusted Information Sharing Network (TISN) after ministerial advisors reported that government agencies have bought cheap foreign IT hardware loaded with malware.

The TISN is a government forum for sharing data pertinent to national cybersecurity between the public and private organisations in seven industries including banking, health, food and utilities.

Johnston told ZDNet Australia that he intends to push a ban on government agencies shirking expensive but trusted technology brands for cheap white-box goods after unnamed departments had discovered backdoor malware in computers, servers and processor chips.

For more on this story, read Cheap hardware infects govt agencies on ZDNet Australia