Recently the National
Cyber Security Policy of India 2013 (NCSP 2013) (PDF) was
released
by Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DeitY).
However the same was not made part and parcel of the National
Security Policy of India. Further, the cyber security policy of
India itself was insufficient
and weak on many counts including lack
of privacy safeguards. The cyber security policy is also not at
all framed to cover the telecom security aspects as well.
India has been planning to undergo technological
upgrade of border broadcast infrastructure due to Chinese
broadcasts. It would also be interesting to see what types of telecom
security policies would be implemented for border regions of India.
Telecom security in India is not in a good shape and Indian telecom
infrastructures are vulnerable to numerous cyber attacks. Recently it
was reported that Huawei was accused
of breaching national security of India by hacking base station
controller in AP.
We have no implementable cyber
attacks crisis management plan of India. The critical
ICT infrastructure of India (PDF) is in a poor shape. The
cyber
security trends of India 2013 (PDF) proved that India has still
to cover a long field before cyber security can be effectively
implemented in India. Thus, telecom infrastructures and equipments
located at borders of India would be more vulnerable to cyber attacks
than general telecom infrastructures of India.
The Telecom Commission may clear an Rs 7,103-crore
rollout of Greenfield 2G networks in regions close to the Chinese and
Bangladesh borders. These regions are presently outside the mobile
loop. There are 8621 villages in locations of strategic importance
across the northeast that are proposed to be brought under the
cellular loop for the first time to bolster mobile-based surveillance
on national security grounds.
Universal Services Obligation Fund (USOF), which
will fund the project, will shortly invite bids from telcos for
rolling out nearly 6,700 base stations in these regions. The USOF is
the Department of Telecommunication’s (DOT) rural network
infrastructure financing arm.
But it remains to be seen whether USOF will tweak
tender norms to ensure any future cost escalations triggered by
India’s spectrum reframing policy are shouldered by telecom
operators. It would also be relevant to observe how the telecom
security and cyber
security aspects would be managed by Indian government in the
near future.
Source: Cyber
Law In India.
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