WASHINGTON, Sept 3 (Reuters) - The White House said on

Tuesday it wants federal agencies to boost internet routing

security on networks in the face of concerns raised by U.S.

officials about China's ability to divert internet traffic.

The White House Office of the National Cyber Director in a

report outlined a series of efforts aimed at addressing a key

security vulnerability associated with the Border Gateway

Protocol, or BGP, which is central to the internet's global

information routing system.

The office said federal agencies should implement routing

security on their networks and seeks to require U.S

government-contracted service providers to deploy current

commercially viable internet routing security technologies.

"Traffic can be inadvertently or purposely diverted, which

may expose personal information; enable theft, extortion, and

state-level espionage; disrupt security-critical transactions;

and disrupt critical infrastructure operations," the report

said.

The internet consists of more than 70,000 interconnected

networks and BGP is used to exchange information to route

traffic.

The White House report said the BGP's "original design

properties do not adequately address the threat to and

resilience requirements of today's internet ecosystem."

In June, the Federal Communications Commission advanced a

proposal to boost BGP security after U.S. agencies said China

Telecom used BGP vulnerabilities "to misroute United

States internet traffic on at least six occasions."

The Defense and Justice Departments said BGP provided China

"with opportunities to disrupt, capture, examine, and alter U.S.

traffic."

FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel said in June "these 'BGP

hijacks' can expose personal information, enable theft,

extortion, and state-level espionage."

In April, the FCC said it was ordering the U.S. units of

China Telecom, China Unicom, China Mobile,

and Chinese telecommunications company Pacific Networks and its

wholly owned subsidiary ComNet to discontinue fixed or mobile

U.S. broadband internet operations.

The commission previously had barred the Chinese companies

from providing telecommunications services, cited national

security concerns.

The FCC earlier barred approvals of new telecommunications

equipment from China's Huawei Technologies and ZTE (Shenzhen:000063),

saying they pose "an unacceptable risk" to U.S. national

security.