Federal government reviews wireless standards
The Department of Defence is reviewing policy on agency usage of unclassified wireless networks on the back of a US-led mandate.
The existing policy for Australian Defence personnel states that agencies should not use wireless communications for the transmission of classified information.
Where agencies have a requirement to transmit classified information using wireless communication, staff must use approved cryptography.
However, a Department of Defence spokesperson said standards and policies are being developed as part of a review that covers the whole of government.
"Wireless networks are an area of interest to government departments and as such is an area being actively reviewed by the DSD," the spokesperson said.
"Any policy changes for wireless will be included in the Australian Government Information and Communications Technology Security Manual (ACSI 33)." The next update to the manual is due in September.
In the US, the Department of Defense is looking to mandate the use of the IEEE 802.11i security standard for unclassified wireless networks so wireless vendors are encouraged to incorporate 802.11i into more products, which still have to be federally certified under the (US) Federal Information processing Standards (FIPS) 140-2 specification.
