  The Intelligence Bureau (IB) has put forth some important discussions with the Department of Telecom (DoT) concerning the security angle.
It has asked DoT about BSNL’s decision to go ahead with procuring wireless equipment from Chinese firm, Huawei Technologies. The IB reasons that security agencies have concerns regarding the use of equipment procured from the vendor. “There is little or no capability to test and certify the telecom elements such as routers and switches, from a security point of view before deployment. Despite objections by the IB, Huawei is supplying mobile equipment to BSNL. This poses a serious threat to telecom security in terms of denial of service and eavesdropping,” says an IB communication to DoT.
As part of its mega-GSM tender, BSNL has awarded the contract for its Southern Zone to Huawei. In fact the tender saw for the first time BSNL allowing Chinese vendors to participate in the tender. Security agencies in India are concerned about the alleged links of company promoters with the Chinese military. Huawei however has repeatedly refuted any such association. A section of the industry too feels that such a campaign may be the work of western world vendors who feel threatened by Huawei.
But with vendors asking for remote access, the IB feels that granting order to the company on the grounds that the Southern part do not hold any borders with China does not holds any logic. Moreover with recent hostile environment concerning both the countries over border related disputes, the concerns raised by IB will certainly attract maximum importance.
The IB meanwhile ahs also demanded that it should be able to monitor more calls from operators. It says that the current practice wherein only 210 randomly picked calls provided by operators do not serve the purpose.
It has also asked DoT that location-based services be implemented across the network so that precise location of a subscriber can be identified.
It has also asked DoT to immediately restrict VoIP services as it is not possible to monitor calls made through such network. |