The Indian government has asked ISPs and telcos to install indigenously developed monitoring equipment to increase internet surveillance, reports The Economic Times. According to the report, the equipment will be produced by government research agency C-DOT and will be used by government’s security agencies. The decision was taken at an inter-ministerial meet attended by officials of the telecom and IT ministries, C-DoT, Intelligence Bureau, representatives from the office of the Cabinet Secretary and Defence Research & Development Organisation. Internal government documents, which ET claims to have reviewed, reveal that interception devices are to be installed at 71 locations and will allow the government to monitor 90% of the country’s internet traffic. The report also mentions that ISPs have been asked to prepare logs of their customers for services they use, for a period of six months. This looks similar to the Home Ministry's proposal to set up a Communications Monitoring facility for interception of all telephonic and mobile data communication, for which it had invited tenders. With ISPs being made responsible for maintaining logs, the government has again made intermediaries play a role in the interception process. They will have no option but to comply with the government's mandate. Earlier, we had also reported how India's Home Ministry wanted social networking sites monitored, putting the onus of “ensuring effective monitoring of social networking websites like Facebook and Twitter in order to strengthen cyber security paraphernalia on the Department of Telecom. Meanwhile, the Department of Telecom is also testing real-time interception of BlackBerry services after parent company RIM provided…
DoT
Indian Govt Asks ISPs & Telcos To Install Interception Equipment; Testing BlackBerry Interception
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