28 November 2009

Secret Telstra facility

| nanzan
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The news web sites are bringing us news about a new secret Telstra Security Operations Centre, somewhere in Canberra, certified by ASIO, and employing 40 people, with the capacity to increase that to 100.

So, any ideas where this new hi-tech top secret establishment is?

Is it related to the other high-security Telstra establishment in Kent Street, Deakin?

Photos anybody?

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I’m surprised nobody has posted a street view link yet. I’ll oblige. It’s hard to hide a 1300m2 building with enormous Telstra signs…

You can even apply for a job there.

dr phil said :

They need someone to clean, someone to take out the trash, someone to spray for pest, someone to open the gates so they don’t need to get out of the car, someone to give out visitor cards, someone to change the light globes, someone to ajust the aircon, someone to do the so called TSPV, they need places to eat, places to drink (wilst displaying the big i.d cards with the proud name of the gov or non gov dept with a if lost return to ??) ect ect. It won’t be a secret for that long, nothing is in Canberra.

It’s true. Who would have thought that top secret Telstra workers would drink their coffee in the AOFC carpark with Centrelink. Frank the coffee man must be a commie.

dr phil said :

They need someone to clean, someone to take out the trash, someone to spray for pest, someone to open the gates so they don’t need to get out of the car, someone to give out visitor cards, someone to change the light globes, someone to ajust the aircon, someone to do the so called TSPV, they need places to eat, places to drink (wilst displaying the big i.d cards with the proud name of the gov or non gov dept with a if lost return to ??) ect ect. It won’t be a secret for that long, nothing is in Canberra.

And logic wins the game.

They need someone to clean, someone to take out the trash, someone to spray for pest, someone to open the gates so they don’t need to get out of the car, someone to give out visitor cards, someone to change the light globes, someone to ajust the aircon, someone to do the so called TSPV, they need places to eat, places to drink (wilst displaying the big i.d cards with the proud name of the gov or non gov dept with a if lost return to ??) ect ect. It won’t be a secret for that long, nothing is in Canberra.

James-T-Kirk2:18 pm 07 Dec 09

westyonline said :

Get a Life you Freaks..This is canberra,and most government departments have stuff all over the place,something about having all your eggs in the one basket!we all want to feel more secure etc etc,so why bring this up to the surface for open discussion……SOMETHING ABOUT NEED TO KNOW BASIS!!

But if we don’t talk about it here, then how will we find the material in Google when we need it again?

Finally – don’t forget the old statement – “Dont worry about deleting a document accidentally, you can always ask the Chinese for a copy of it!”

And – Just ask *any* reporter – they NEEEEEEDDDDD to know!

James-T-Kirk2:15 pm 07 Dec 09

sloppery said :

PBO said :

P.s. I dont think that anyone gets off on this stuff as the SECMAN and the PSM make lousy masturbation material.

Clearly you haven’t found the centrefold!

Mmmmmm I love the DSM Mmmmmmmm

Its in Symonston. It is T4 accredited because they monitor secure networks. Not really top secret though as they had a big write up about it in the Canberra times?

The car park at the Deakin exchange has seemed a lot fuller than usual.

farq said :

PBO said :

I believe that the tunnel in the pic is the one that went from Russell G to Russell H, which would put it a few hundred meters to the right and up a bit. Almost under the Bugs Bunny statue.

Yeah sort of looks the same. I don’t think that tunnel was ever a secret.

For the later part of its life it was not, it just made it easier to move things around without leaving the security of the buildings. Also made a dandy storage area for a while.

PBO said :

I believe that the tunnel in the pic is the one that went from Russell G to Russell H, which would put it a few hundred meters to the right and up a bit. Almost under the Bugs Bunny statue.

Yeah sort of looks the same. I don’t think that tunnel was ever a secret.

westyonline said :

Get a Life you Freaks..This is canberra,and most government departments have stuff all over the place,something about having all your eggs in the one basket!we all want to feel more secure etc etc,so why bring this up to the surface for open discussion……SOMETHING ABOUT NEED TO KNOW BASIS!!

Well some of feel that we would like to know and that is why we choose to discuss open source material in an open discussion, so stop trying to be so authoritarian.

I would like to say blow it out your ringpiece sunshine but that would get me moderated.

westyonline said :

Get a Life you Freaks..This is canberra,and most government departments have stuff all over the place,something about having all your eggs in the one basket!we all want to feel more secure etc etc,so why bring this up to the surface for open discussion……SOMETHING ABOUT NEED TO KNOW BASIS!!

Of course, if everything we say is complete BS, then your statement is meaningless, yes?

Get a Life you Freaks..This is canberra,and most government departments have stuff all over the place,something about having all your eggs in the one basket!we all want to feel more secure etc etc,so why bring this up to the surface for open discussion……SOMETHING ABOUT NEED TO KNOW BASIS!!

I believe that the tunnel in the pic is the one that went from Russell G to Russell H, which would put it a few hundred meters to the right and up a bit. Almost under the Bugs Bunny statue.

Exactly! Why do you think they wanted to put the ASIO building there?

Well, I was more implying that if you went and peered over the fence you ought to be able to see the supposed tunnel.

Holden Caulfield1:58 pm 30 Nov 09

More tin foil for aisle 12 please. More tin foil, aisle 12.

PBO said :

P.s. I dont think that anyone gets off on this stuff as the SECMAN and the PSM make lousy masturbation material.

Clearly you haven’t found the centrefold!

caf said :

p1: I don’t know how accurate that map is supposed to be, but the marked route of the “Russell tunnel” goes through the current big hole in the ground where the ASIO building site is.

Exactly! Why do you think they wanted to put the ASIO building there? 🙂

p1: I don’t know how accurate that map is supposed to be, but the marked route of the “Russell tunnel” goes through the current big hole in the ground where the ASIO building site is.

and what are the traffic implications #12 ?. No doubt you’ll be out there counting people committing petty infringements. perhaps you could perform volunteer picket duty on the new asio building under construction in your spare time. and if you know where to sign up for Al – Q maybe you should pass that on the national security hotline. very useful information that.

UrbanAdventure.org said :

Oh for crying out loud. Some of you may as well just sign up for Al-Qaeda membership! Do you ever stop to think for just a moment about the damage you may be doing to national security by discussing this stuff publicly? Where do you idiots get off handing out indformation about classified facillities?

And where do the owners of the Riot Act get off by allowing this crap to happen?

Because firstly, i bet most of us have clearances and know what can and cannot be discussed. And secondly, it is all open source information if you know where to look.

Gotta chill a bit man! Just because you dont know about these things does not make them secret.

P.s. I dont think that anyone gets off on this stuff as the SECMAN and the PSM make lousy masturbation material.

This being Canberra, I’m sure every singe one of us knows someone who works in each of these very secret locations.

Disposable said :

In the bunker under the lake. P1 has an awesome google map of it.

It is funny ’cause it’s true 🙂

georgesgenitals1:37 pm 29 Nov 09

UrbanAdventure.org said :

Oh for crying out loud. Some of you may as well just sign up for Al-Qaeda membership! Do you ever stop to think for just a moment about the damage you may be doing to national security by discussing this stuff publicly? Where do you idiots get off handing out indformation about classified facillities?

And where do the owners of the Riot Act get off by allowing this crap to happen?

Hilarious. The requirements for government IT security are intentionally wrapped up in a document accessible publicly from the web.

Woody Mann-Caruso1:35 pm 29 Nov 09

Do you ever stop to think for just a moment about the damage you may be doing to national security by discussing this stuff publicly?

Do you ever stop to think that ‘security through obscurity’ is dumb?

Deadmandrinking1:19 pm 29 Nov 09

UrbanAdventure.org said :

Oh for crying out loud. Some of you may as well just sign up for Al-Qaeda membership! Do you ever stop to think for just a moment about the damage you may be doing to national security by discussing this stuff publicly? Where do you idiots get off handing out indformation about classified facillities?

And where do the owners of the Riot Act get off by allowing this crap to happen?

He’s right! The news websites told us to keep quiet!

UrbanAdventure.org said :

Do you ever stop to think for just a moment about the damage you may be doing to national security by discussing this stuff publicly? Where do you idiots get off handing out indformation about classified facillities?

I havent seen anyone actually identify any sites, other than saying ‘theres a few new buildings here, and there’. Maybe you didnt actually click the link in the OP, which was simply google search results. If something is on google search results from the news media, you can hardly accuse RiotACTers of security breaches by discussing what is in the news (and on google) already.

Only this week jb?

UrbanAdventure.org said :

Oh for crying out loud. Some of you may as well just sign up for Al-Qaeda membership! Do you ever stop to think for just a moment about the damage you may be doing to national security by discussing this stuff publicly? Where do you idiots get off handing out indformation about classified facillities?

And where do the owners of the Riot Act get off by allowing this crap to happen?

I don’t think we are giving away too many state secrets here. Perhaps ASIO and DSD should also remove the signs from outside their buildings.

Actually, you should sign up for Al Qaeda membership – I hear they do a good chicken schnitzel and have a mega meat tray raffle on Wed nights

Congratulations on the stupidest thing said on RiotACT this week UA.

UrbanAdventure.org9:32 am 29 Nov 09

Oh for crying out loud. Some of you may as well just sign up for Al-Qaeda membership! Do you ever stop to think for just a moment about the damage you may be doing to national security by discussing this stuff publicly? Where do you idiots get off handing out indformation about classified facillities?

And where do the owners of the Riot Act get off by allowing this crap to happen?

Grrrr said :

Who cares about the location and appearance of yet another Canberran T4 accredited data centre?

That should be fairly obvious.

Perhaps at Fyshwick, there have been a few development applications over the past year with very little info or described as a “defence facility”.

georgesgenitals4:09 pm 28 Nov 09

ASIO T4 certification (only an agency ASA can accredit physical premises for the purposes of civilian government) sounds lot sexier than it really is. The Australian Govt uses the services of ASIO’s T4 group for laying out the standards for physical security in govt. This means that either ASIO T4 (or one of their SCEC-endorsed assessors) certifies that the building or room is constructed to meet the requirements in the relevant standard.

There are lots of sites around town that are certified, and lots of individual rooms as well, belonging to both govt and private organisations. Having such facilities is standard if you want to do business in this town.

Thanks for that Tony.

In addition to the questions raised, I’d like to add a coupe more.

A couple of articles I read state that resources are being relocated from Sydney and Melbourne.

Is Telstra going to need to advertise to fill new positions, or are they just relocating existing ones?

Does anyone know when this facility is scheduled to open?

NickD, the established building on Battye St is an EDS managed facility housing a number of Fed Gov equipment and EDS staff. The building on Braybrook St is a Verizon (ex Cybertrust) building, again hosting Fed Gov equipment and Verizon staff. Both are ASIO T4 accredited, but to my knowledge none of these buildings have commercial customers. I doubt Telstra is moving in with these guys, they are competitors in this space. Not to mention that these mostly contain Data Center space and that is in very short supply and expensive ATM.

A Noisy Noise Annoys An Oyster11:38 am 28 Nov 09

I could tell you but then I’d have to kill you . . .

NickD said :

There’s are a couple of a large, newish and mysterious-looking office buildings on Battye Street and Braybrooke Street in Bruce which have pretty tight security. The one on Battye Street has no signage indicating who the tenant is – there’s only an Australian Government logo on its gate. I think that Centrelink and some other agencies have data centres there, but Telstra could have moved in as well.

I think that it is the TAX server and backup. I thought that they were moving the Telstra bunker to Hume, though i could be wrong.

“Under that lake” .. that must be the reason for the dumptruck at the lake’s edge recently seen here, it was just collecting the last of the construction waste from their secret aquatic lair!

Who cares about the location and appearance of yet another Canberran T4 accredited data centre? It’s going to be a bland concrete box in the middle of somewhere unexciting. The implication that it’s location is classified Top Secret is pretty fanciful. The reality is there’s nothing to gain by announcing it’s location – only a loss of privacy and therefore security, so they don’t.

In the bunker under the lake. P1 has an awesome google map of it.

T4-accredited means they’re going after government customers, not just corporate

There’s are a couple of a large, newish and mysterious-looking office buildings on Battye Street and Braybrooke Street in Bruce which have pretty tight security. The one on Battye Street has no signage indicating who the tenant is – there’s only an Australian Government logo on its gate. I think that Centrelink and some other agencies have data centres there, but Telstra could have moved in as well.

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