Trai extends mandatory whitelisting deadline by a month to October 1

Telcos to submit status update to Trai in 15 days

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) on Friday extended the deadline to implement the mandatory whitelisting, or registration of internet links, Android application packages (APKs), and call back numbers sent through text messages, by a month till October 1.

Whitelisting is a cybersecurity strategy under which only pre-approved or trusted users, entities, or actions are allowed to operate on a system or network.

The telecom regulator has directed operators to inform it of the updated status on action taken within 15 days and submit a compliance report within 30 days.

The latest move comes after Trai had doubled down on its September 1 deadline for the same. Earlier this week, it had told the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), various sector regulators, and government agencies to implement the mandatory whitelisting by September 1.

An URL is essentially the link for a website, or the address of a unique resource on the internet while an APK is an executable file that contains all the data needed to install and run an Android App.

At a meeting of the Joint Committee of Regulators (JCOR) convened by Trai on Tuesday, the telecom regulator had stressed the need for a joint effort to tackle the problem of spam messages and calls, and said “the timeline fixed by Trai's latest directions needs to be enforced”.

The decision (mandatory whitelisting) is billed to have a major impact on curbing spam and potential frauds, given that many users unknowingly click on links that act as phishing tools for data hackers.

But it has also sparked concerns that consumers of banks, financial institutions, and e-commerce companies may face interruptions in receiving service and transactional messages, especially One Time Passwords (OTPs).