The Department of Telecom (DoT) has taken a serious note of the threat posed by the presence of spyware and malware in the equipments supplied by vendors to Indian telecom companies. The department is seeking approval of the Cabinet Committee on Security to enforce strict compliance of security measures. Earlier, security agencies had raised concerns that by embedding spyware in the equipments, foreign agencies can gain control of Indian communication networks.
The Indian Government is planning to send a technical team to the factories of vendors where the equipments are being manufactured, together with third-party certification agencies. A committee was formed to look into the matter and formulate a transparent process for purchasing telecom equipment. This committee includes the National Security Advisor, the Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister, Prof M. Balakrishnan of IIT-Delhi and DoT officials.
The DoT is planning to set up a local network security certifying agency at the Indian Institute of Science to check the operator’s network for spyware / malware. Until its establishment, DoT has appointed British Telecom (BT) as a consultant on telecom equipment safety. International security firms from the US, Canada and Israel have been appointed for security auditing for the 3G mobile network.
The department is drawing up an agreement that it plans to make it compulsory for procurement of license. According to this, both telecom equipment vendors and operators will have to sign an agreement allowing third party audit. However, before including this as a part of license agreement, DoT will discuss the matter with operators.
In case of detection of spyware in an operator network, both the operator and the equipment vendor will be held responsible. While the vendor will be blacklisted, the service provider will have to cough up the penalty imposed.
How the new development will affect Chinese telecom equipment vendors, including Huawei that ran into rough weather with state-owned BSNL, is yet to be seen.
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