International Telecommunication Union
Country Case Studies:
The Case of Brazil
ITU Workshop on Creating Trust
in Critical Network Infrastructures
Seoul, Republic of Korea
May 20, 2002
Robert Shaw
<robert.shaw@itu.int>
ITU Internet Strategy and Policy Advisor
International Telecommunication Union
The views expressed in this paper are those of the author and may not necessarily reflect the
opinions of the ITU or its membership or the Federative Republic of Brazil.
International Telecommunication Union
Telecommunications Environment
• Brazil telecommunication sector
legislation and regulation widely
regarded as very progressive
Mobile Subscribers (Millions)
Fixed Lines Installed (Millions)
58
58
60
60
47.8
49.6
45.5
50
50
38.3
40
40
28.7
27.8
30
22.1
30
23.2
16.5
20
20
10
10
15
7.4
2.7
0
0
1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005
1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005
Fixed Lines Installed (Millions)
Mobile Subscribers (Millions)
International Telecommunication Union
Security & Telecommunications
Regulatory Framework
• Generally applies only to “public services”
– provisions framed within context of Quality of
Service licensing provisions
– Internet services are considered to be valueadded services and not regulated
• Even if treated different from regulatory
perspective, interests of telecom and
Internet providers in operating secure
networks are clearly inter-related
• Latter depends almost entirely on the
former for backbone infrastructure and
access networks
International Telecommunication Union
Growth in Brazilian Internet
2000
2002
International Telecommunication Union
Interregional Internet Bandwidth
1,172.4 Mbps
USA &
Canada
14,1
39.9
Mb
ps
Asia &
Pacific
Latin
America &
Caribbean
Mbps
766.6
ps
b
1M
.
0
82
,
1
4
162
,25
0.1
Mb
ps
Arab
States &
Africa
Source: TeleGeography Inc., data valid for Mid-2001.
Europe
ps
b
M
8
.
444
68.0 Mbps
International Telecommunication Union
International Internet
Connectivity LAC
• mid-2000 to mid-2001, international
Internet connectivity to Latin America &
Caribbean grew 500%
• Growth twice as fast as any other world
region
• 2,500% growth between Latin America
countries
• Fastest growth of any
intra-regional bandwidth
Growth in Submarine Cable Capacity
to South America (in Gbps)
400
300
396
200
291
100
13
Source: Telegeography, Packet Geography 2001
0
1999
2000
2001
International Telecommunication Union
The Brazilian Government as Promoter and
User of Info-Communication Technologies
• Electronic Government (e-gov) Action plan:
– to provide through the Internet all government
services
– To promote convergence among governmental
information systems, networks & databases;
– to broaden citizens’ access to information
– to implement an advanced communications &
service infrastructure
– to encourage access to the Internet, mainly by
means of public access points
– to establish a legal and normative framework
for electronic communications and transactions
– to facilitate Internet access throughout Brazil
International Telecommunication Union
Some e-gov Goals for 2003
• Provision of more services through the
Internet
• Implementation of digital citizen’s card
• Electronic payment scheme
• Integrated government online services
network
• Electronic Points of Presence (kiosks)
• Wiring schools
• Integrated public safety system over
Internet (law enforcement)
International Telecommunication Union
Activities to Improve Trust
in Network Infrastructures
• Telecommunications and Internet Provider
Security Groups
• Brazilian Internet Steering Committee
• Brazilian Country Code Top Level Domain
• Brazilian Computer Emergency Response Team
(NBSO)
• Academic and Research Security Groups
• International Cooperation Initiatives of Security
Incident Response Teams
• SERPRO
• New Legislative Initiatives
• Policies and Legislation Related to Public Key
Infrastructure
International Telecommunication Union
Telecommunications and Internet
Provider Security Groups
• Depending on size, all providers have
either their own internal security policies,
security incident response teams or are
dependent on “upstream” providers
• For example, large Brazilian ISPs such as
UOL, IG and AOL depend extensively on
the infrastructure and/or data centers
leased from large providers like Embratel,
Telemar or Telefónica.
• Cooperation on security issues tends to be
minimalist and based on direct personal
contacts between technical staff
International Telecommunication Union
Brazilian Internet Steering
Committee
• Created 1995 by Ministry of Communications &
Ministry of Science & Technology:
– to encourage development of Internet in Brazil;
– to recommend technical and operational
procedures for Internet in Brazil;
– coordinate attribution of Internet addresses,
registration of .br domain names, backbone
interconnections;
– to collect , organize and disseminate information
on Internet services.
• Members are government agencies, representatives
of providers, industry, users academic community
• Sub-groups on security, produce voluntary
recommendations
International Telecommunication Union
Brazilian Country Code Top Level
Domain (.br)
• Operated under the oversight of the
Brazilian Internet Steering Committee
• Part of Brazil critical infrastructure
• 450,000 active domains making it one of
largest ccTLD registries in world
• Under transfer to new secure faculties, 7 x
24 ops, controlled access, etc.
• Same site to host operations center for
LACNIC Regional IP Address Registry
International Telecommunication Union
Brazilian Computer Emergency
Response Team (NBSO)
• Service-focused organization responsible
for receiving, reviewing, and responding to
computer security incident reports and
activity related to Brazilian Internet:
– Incident Handling
– Collaboration
– Incident Tracking
• NBSO’s impression is that growing hacker
community in Brazil but mostly “script
kiddies” with little sophistication.
International Telecommunication Union
Academic and Research Security
Groups
• RNP Security Incident Response Team group
(CAIS-RNP)
– Increased number of network security incidents—most
recently rapid increase in denial of service attacks
• Many other Brazilian academic Computer Security
Incident Response Teams (CSIRTs)
Number of Incidents (Per Month)
900
800
700
600
500
400
300
200
100
0
1st
Semester
1999
1st
Semester
2000
1st
Semester
2001
Number of Incidents
Up to
March
2002
International Telecommunication Union
International Cooperation Initiatives
• NBSO and RNP-CAIS Computer Incident
Response Teams (CSIRTs) have become
members of International Forum of Incident
Response and Security Teams (FIRST)
• Brazilian federal law enforcement officials
have some cooperation with Interpol on
information technology crimes
International Telecommunication Union
SERPRO
• Private company owned by the Brazilian
government providing networking services
to government agencies
• Runs large IP-based government network
and IBM SNA network throughout Brazil
• Brazil’s electronic tax filing is probably the
most important application run by SERPRO
International Telecommunication Union
SERPRO Cont.
• Security committee of 35 people who develop
government systems security policies
• With integration of government systems, preparing
broader Federal security policy to replace
individual agency security policies.
• Since 1999, SERPRO has a computer incident
response team Grupo de Resposta à Ataques
(GRA) that performs:
– vulnerability analysis of government systems
– 24 x 7 monitoring.
– Monitoring provides evidence there are systematic
attempts to break into government networks, originating
from both commercial service providers and academic
networks.
International Telecommunication Union
Legislative Initiatives
• One of the objectives of e-gov programme
is legal and normative framework for
electronic communications & transactions.
• Some existing legislation on cyber-crimes
(against government systems) and
information security, public key
infrastructure provisions
• Much current activity on infosec legislation
including much stronger provisions on
cyber-crime, privacy, logging
International Telecommunication Union
Policies and Legislation Related to
Public Key Infrastructure
• Government developing policy and
legislative framework for Public Key
Infrastructure (PKI) framework (“ICPBrasil”)
– extensive legislative activity
• Since January 2002, all official documents
exchanged between President, Ministers
and other top officials are encrypted and
signed with 2048-bit RSA keys
• Goal is that PKI framework will be used to
issue digital IDs to all citizens
International Telecommunication Union
Some Conclusions
• With government focus on citizen access to
online services, realization of need to pay
close attention to information and systems
security and cyber-crime
• Necessary so citizens will have confidence
in use of network infrastructures
• Will include “enabling hand” legislation and
regulatory initiatives
• Also involves sustained cooperative
initiatives
with
the
private
sector,
educational community and civil society