National Cyber Coordination Centre (NCCC), the government’s cyber security project which scans and records meta data on the Internet is live, according to P.P Chaudhary, Minister of State for Electronics and IT (Meity’s) reply to the Parliament. The NCCC received an in-principal approval from the Cabinet in May 2013, Hindustan Times reported at that time. It “screens all forms of meta-data, ensure better coordination between various intelligence agencies and streamline intelligence gathering”, the report pointed out. The project costs Rs 500 crore and is implemented by Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In). The types of data NCCC will look at The NCCC can “actively” tie up with other cyber intelligence agencies to collect and share data to conduct surveillance, although, via lawful means. When it was proposed in 2015, it was a part of the National Information Board, the HT report said. But according to Minister Chaudhary’s reply, the NCC is now housed under the Meity instead. The NCCC is limited to online and cyber intelligence and collects data through tie ups with other intelligence units. The government’s meta data scanner is likely to have access to: The National Intelligence Grid (NATGRID) which keeps all sorts of citizen data in a single database that can be accessed by officers from RAW, CBI, IB etc. NATGRID and NCCC were proposed under the same ministry initially and it’s likely that there is some amount of cross-data sharing. NATGRID has access to hold 21 categories of citizen database like bank account details, telephone records, passport data and…
