Brazil moves to secure telecom, Internet systems after US spying

Brasilia, Aug 15
The Hindu http://tinyurl.com/kmnrp8b

(AFP) Brazil said on Wednesday it is moving to secure its communications
through its own satellite and digital networks to end its dependence on
the United States, which is accused of electronically spying on the region.

?Brazil is in favour of greater decentralisation: Internet governance
must be multilateral and multisectoral with a broader participation,?
the Communications Minister, Paulo Bernardo, told a congressional panel.

Yesterday, Foreign Minister, Antonio Patriota, warned his US
counterpart, John Kerry, that the row over Washington?s electronic
snooping could sow mistrust between the two countries.

Kerry responded by conceding that Brasilia was owed answers from
Washington and would get them.

He suggested that the vast US surveillance programme aimed to "provide
security, not just for Americans, but for Brazilians and the people of
the world."

But Bernardo today criticised the ?strong concentration of (Internet)
traffic? by US firms.

Revelations by US intelligence leaker Edward Snowden about the vast
scope of US electronic surveillance programmes have caused deep unease
in Brazil and other Latin American countries that have reportedly been
targeted by the spying.

Bernardo said Brasilia was finalising the selection of companies that
will be tasked with building and launching a geostationary defence and
strategic communications satellite.

French-Italian group Thales Alenia Space (TAS) has said it had won a
contract worth about $400 million to build a satellite for Brazil's
developing space programme.

The order, placed by Visiona -- jointly owned by Brazilian aeroplane
maker Embraer and telecom provider Telebras -- is for a geostationary
satellite for civil and military use.

Telebras said that with the satellite, "high-speed Internet will be
extended to the entire nation and will ensure the sovereignty of its
civil and military communications."

Arianespace has been selected to launch the satellite in 2015.

The deal also allows for a transfer of technology between TAS and
Brazil, making TAS the preferred industrial partner in building up
Brazil?s space programme.

(This article was published on August 15, 2013)

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