August 26, 2016

DCNS now warned on document leak by Australia's Defence Industry Minister

Comment: All pretty self-explanatory and perhaps expected.

ARTICLES

1.  Uma Patel for Australia’s government financed ABC News, August 26, 2016, reports :

“Defence warns French company to keep submarine designs safe after India leak”

“The Defence Department has warned the French shipbuilding company building submarines in Adelaide to keep designs for the project safe.

Defence Industry Minister Christopher Pyne ordered the warning be given to DCNS — which won the $50 billion bid to build 12 submarines in April— after 20,000 pages of plans for their project in India were leaked.

There has since been discussion about whether the company was hacked. The Defence Department has told DCNS Australia wants the same level of protection as the United States [see Voice of America article] gives for information on Australia's submarines

The confirmation comes just days after Mr Pyne [and Prime Minister Turnbull] downplayed the leaks, saying he had received advice from the Department of Defence that the incident had "no bearing on the Australian Government's Future Submarine Program".

In a statement earlier this week, he said that the "program operates under stringent security requirements that govern the manner in which all information and technical data is managed now and into the future".

"The same requirements apply to the protection of all sensitive information and technical data for the Collins class submarines, and have operated successfully for decades," the statement continued.

But this morning on Channel Nine he conceded the leak was "embarrassing" for DCNS and the Indian Navy.

DCNS also issued a statement earlier in the week, saying that "French national authorities for Defence security will formally investigate and determine the exact nature of the leaked documents".


"The matters in connection to India have no bearing on the Australian submarine program, which operates under the Australian Government's arrangements for the protection of sensitive data," it added.”
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2.  Russia Today, August 25, 2016 reports: "...The source went on to state that the documents seem to have been stolen in 2011 by a former French employee who had been fired in India while providing training on the use of submarines..." 

Pete

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