Include penalty in national telecom security policy: DRDO

Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) has communicated to the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) that the proposed National Telecom Security Policy should have a framework to penalise telecom service providers if they fail to abide by the norms.

It said telecom service providers should endure that user data is not revealed or duplicated or copied or shared with recipients other than those designated by the sender, and should ensure that user data is not being routed outside the infrastructure within India when the end points of communication are inside Indian territory.

Telcos will require ensuring authentication of end user, authorised access to services and attribution of activities and payloads to end users. The attribution in the form audit, forensic and tracking mechanisms should ensure tracking of inappropriate use, criminal activities and enforcement of IT and cyber security laws of the Government.

Earlier, the Government had differences with Blackberry over the encrypted message and email services the firm provides to customers.

Fearing that such encrypted services can be used to plan and execute terrorist strikes, India had also threatened to ban the providers of such services if they failed to accommodate the legitimate demands of law enforcement agencies.
However, with DRDO’s inputs, the policy is likely to have more stringent norms which may further make it difficult for the equipment makers to do business in India.