Tuesday, June 01, 2010

DoT not ignorant but wilfully negligent

The most recent attack on an Indian institution, known to the media, was on December 15, 2009, while India was signing defence agreements with some American companies. The then National Security Advisor K Narayan had admitted to the cyber attack by Chinese hackers. He had said, “This was not the first attempt by the Chinese to hack into the systems of important government offices.” His own office was targeted and the attack came in the form of an e-mail with a PDF attachment containing a ‘Trojan’ which allowed a hacker to access a computer remotely and download or delete files.

Keeping these issues in mind, the MHA asked the ministry of communication and IT to ban Chinese equipment and software pertaining to highly sensitive mobile services. China expert and professor at Jawaharlal Nehru University Srikanth Kondapalli says, “They are pushing for their companies but there is a difference between Indian and Chinese companies. Chinese companies have to have a member of the party committee in one top position where as in India no company generally has a member of a political party who will report to the Central committee or politburo of the party. Also, any Chinese citizen, who goes out of the country, first serves the country and then only gets his passport. So we can say there is some connection between the Chinese companies and the Communist Party in power.”

After the MHA raised the red flag, the government became active about mobile telephony equipment but it has not paid any attention to SIM cards. Its complete focus was on other equipment and software used in networking of the mobile services. It is to be noted here that the state-run BSNL considers SIM to be compliant with the same quality standard which is applicable to all other mobile equipments. Experts say that spyware planted in SIM cards can also be used to jam networks, causing chaos in the country. Senior Project manager of HCL technologies Sanjay Jauhari says, “Crores of SIM cards can be blocked by inserting spyware into them. Or, it can be used to listen in to conversations.” We can’t neglect the possibility of China already tracking the phones of important people? Former special director of Intelligence Bureau D.C.Nath says, “The problems of SIM cards are two-fold. They can infiltrate the communications of people who are directly or indirectly related to security and Intelligence establishments. The much bigger issue is that of economic espionage. The country’s economy can be crippled. The government should recall all foreign-origin SIM cards and cleanse the market of such SIM cards. Even the corporate world should be sensitive about it.”

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Source :
IIPM Editorial, 2009


An IIPM and Professor Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist) Initiative

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