By David Shepardson
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The White House said on Tuesday it wants federal agencies to strengthen the security of internet routing on networks in the face of concerns raised by U.S. officials about China’s ability to divert internet traffic.
In a report issued by the White House Office of the National Cybersecurity Director, the office noted a series of efforts to address a major security vulnerability associated with the Border Gateway Protocol, or BGP, which is fundamental to the global information routing system on the Internet.
The bureau said federal agencies should implement routing security on their networks and seek to require U.S. government contract service providers to deploy existing, commercially viable Internet routing security technologies.
“Traffic can be diverted unintentionally or intentionally, potentially exposing personal information; enabling theft, extortion, and state-level espionage; disrupting security-critical transactions; and disrupting critical infrastructure operations,” the report said.
The Internet consists of more than 70,000 interconnected networks, and the BGP protocol is used to exchange information to route traffic.
“The original design features of BGP do not adequately address the threats and resiliency requirements of today’s Internet ecosystem,” the White House report said.
In June, the FCC proposed strengthening BGP security after U.S. agencies said China Telecom (NYSE:) had used BGP vulnerabilities “to misroute U.S. Internet traffic on at least six occasions.”
The Defense and Justice departments said BGP provided China with “opportunities to disrupt, capture, inspect, and alter U.S. traffic.”
“These BGP hijackings can expose personal information, enable theft, extortion, and state-level espionage,” FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said in June.
In April, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission said it had ordered the U.S. units of China Telecom, China Unicom, China Mobile, China Pacific Networks and its wholly-owned subsidiary ComNet to cease fixed or mobile broadband Internet operations in the United States.
The commission had previously banned Chinese companies from providing telecommunications services, citing national security concerns.
The Federal Communications Commission had previously blocked approvals for new telecom equipment from China’s Huawei Technologies Co Ltd and ZTE Corp (HK:), saying they posed an “unacceptable risk” to U.S. national security.