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A government panel set up to examine security threats regarding 15 forms of communications, including Google's Gmail, Research in Motion's BlackBerry services, Nokia's email offerings and internet telephony among others, that cannot be tracked by law enforcement agencies here, has recommended that no service be banned purely on the grounds that it cannot be monitored. It has recommended that in the short term, India can force operators who offer such services to either locate their servers in the country or share encryption keys with security agencies and assist security agencies here in monitoring these services.

"LONDON: Britain's internal spy agency MI5 tapped innocent people's phone numbers in secret surveillance mix-up, according to a government report. Officers from the Security Service -- mainly concerned with the UK's internal security -- and Serious Organised Crime Agency mistakenly tapped the wrong telephones in as many as 30 cases, says the report. However, on grounds of national security, none of the victims have been identified or told their phones were wrongly intercepted, the 'Daily Mail' reported. "

BlackBerry maker Research In Motion (RIM) said today the network data analysis system (NDAS) was a tool to gain lawful access only to its consumer services including BlackBerry Messenger, and does not enable access to highly secure corporate emails on its devices. RIM, in a statement, reiterated that there would be no change to its security model for corporate emails, clarifying after a newspaper earlier reported RIM had offered to install the tool at its premises in India to help tap data. RIM has said it was cooperating with the Indian government and was enabling mobile carriers to lawfully access data on BlackBerry Messenger. India had threatened to shut off BlackBerry Messenger and corporate email services unless it gains access to them, in a campaign driven by fears that unmonitored communication puts the country's security at risk.

The Civial Aviation Ministry has set up a committee for assessment of body scanners from the point of view of effectiveness, privacy and health, government said today. Civil Aviation Minister Vayalar Ravi told the Lok Sabha that the government has not installed non-intrusive body scanners so far and security agencies are carrying out an assessment of body scanners. "The government has not installed non-intrusive body scanner. However, assessment of the body scanners from security point of view is being carried out by security agencies," he said in a written reply.

NEW DELHI: Indian law enforcement and national security officials are drawing up plans that will give them technology capabilities to cut off all internet services during emergencies. After a series of recent meetings on cyber security held at the prime Minister's Office at South Block, all government departments have been asked to jointly work on developing technologies and also invest in enhancing R&D capabilities to enhance the Centre's control on internet services within the country, officials aware of the development told ET.

So much so, it has asked the telecoms department to make it mandatory for all mobile phone companies to secure suitable clearances from LEAs before running the Tiger application on their networks. "Use of the (Tiger Text) application by Indian telecom service providers can create operational problems for national security agencies

"Nearly 10 years after the Kargil Review Committee was set up to revamp the defence establishment of the country, the government on Monday constituted a high-powered task force under former Cabinet secretary Naresh Chandra to overhaul the national security apparatus. According to sources, the 11-member committee will review various contentious issues like the National Counter Terrorism Centre (NCTC), hacking e-mails, BlackBerry and privacy issues involved in the National Intelligence Grid (NATGRID) project. "

The government will soon issue guidelines to address security concerns over 3G video calls. "3G issue is almost resolved. Soon you will have new guidelines," communications and IT minister Kapil Sibal said. Yesterday, home minister P Chidambaram had said that telecom service providers neeed to work out the modalities to provide interception facilities to the security agencies, and only after that can the 3G mobile services be rolled out. The department of telecommunications (DoT) had asked Tata Teleservices and Reliance Communications to stop commercial launch of 3G mobile services, including video calling facility. The law enforcement agencies were not able to intercept the video calls on a real time basis. The contents of video calls were displayed only after five minutes. The operators had offered to provide an interception solution in the next six months.

With allegations of misuse as well as fears of breach of privacy mounting, authorities are working to ban phone tapping in cases of tax evasion, except when the matter may have a bearing on national security. Even in cases concerning national security, only Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) or Enforcement Directorate (ED) will do phone-tapping after additional scrutiny of its request is done in consultation with both home and finance ministries. CBDT, another agency under the finance ministry which is empowered to tap phones, is being taken off the list.

The Union government on Thursday permitted carriage of video calls on 3G mobile networks subject to an undertaking by the operators that they would provide interception capability by July 31. The Tatas and the RCom have already launched the 3G service across various circles, while others, including Bharti and Vodafone, are likely to start the service soon. Those offering the service were asked to stop the service as security agencies were not able to intercept the video calls on real-time basis.

SRIKAKULAM: Department of Fisheries decided to complete process of enrolment of fishermen for the issue of biometric smart cards very soon in Srikakulam district. The department has so far collected photos, finger prints and signatures from 30,000 fishermen and remaining 20,000 will be covered in a phased manner. The department which introduced on-line system for the registration said there was good response from fishermen in the district. Biometric identity cards are compulsory to fishermen engaged in deep-sea fishing as part of beefing up coastal security. The identity card was going to be an important document for a fisherman, the officials said, adding that once the scheme was complete, Coast Guard personnel would not allow anyone to fish without the biometric identity card. The scheme for issuing biometric identity cards for fishermen in the State has been launched as part of a directive by the Ministry of Home Affairs' to keep vigil along the coasts in the wake of the terrorist attacks in Mumbai on November 26, 2008.

"The officials have already collected the data relating to 33,316 fishermen in 66 villages after conducting an extensive survey in the 10 coastal mandals of the district for issue of tamper-proof ID cards using fingerprinting technology and pooling the information in a centralised database of the centre to better manage the internal security. The ID card comprising details like the name of the fisherman, parents' names, address, educational qualification, ration card number and voter ID card number, would be very be very useful particularly when fishermen were stranded in the high seas at times of natural calamities, he added. In all, 4,190 fishing boats were registered in the district so far as per the Centre's directive, he said."

NEW DELHI: The government has asked telecom operators and internet service providers (ISPs) to install indigenously developed monitoring equipment, in a move aimed at increasing surveillance of internet traffic. Post installation, the cost of which will have to be borne by operators, the equipment produced by state-owned research agency C-DoT will be manned by the government's security agencies.

KOLKATA: The Indian government will shortly impose hefty penalties on business process outsourcing (BPO) firms that compromise on the data privacy of individual customers. It is likely to tighten the provisions linked to data privacy and data protection in the Information Technology (IT) Act, 2000, and is working closely with the US to emulate existing global best practices in the realm of data security and privacy, a senior official in the communications ministry told ET. There is a view in sections of the government that the present IT Act, 2000, does not adequately address data privacy concerns of individuals . And hence the need for more stringent legislation by way of penal provisions to effectively deal with companies passing on sensitive personal in-formation of individuals to third-parties without prior consent.

Google Inc will not share the encryption keys of its email service with Indian security agencies as it would compromise the privacy rights of millions of Gmail users worldwide, a top company executive said. The Union home ministry, intelligence agencies and the telecom department are collectively exploring mandatory sharing of software by all communication service companies in India, a sensitive issue with global firms. Some firms have already been asked to comply and Canada's Research In Motion (RIM) is edging closer to January 31, 2011, deadline to hand over the encryption keys for its popular BlackBerry messaging services to intelligence agencies. "

The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation has decided to construct, for the first time, exclusive women's toilets at public places in the city. Charminar and Birla Mandir are among several locations where these conveniences will be constructed. There will be no charge for use of the toilets. The decision has been welcomed by women's welfare organisations and the medical fraternity involved in women's health problems. But they have warned that unless the toilets are clean and hygienic, with sufficient water supply, privacy and security and are easily accessible, they will meet the same fate of disuse and decay as other public toilets in the city.

Home Minister P Chidambaram's pet project of establishing a National Intelligence Grid (NATGRID) to track terror and money laundering is likely to be vetted by the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) next month. Informed sources said that a 900 page Detailed Project Report (DPR) that has been prepared to answer the queries raised by the sceptics within the government, including the Prime Minister, on the efficacy of the NATGRID has been sent to the CCS members to study. NATGRID envisages a powerful real-time 24X7 networking of 21 databases with enforcement agencies having analytical capability to cross-link different pieces of information and flag "tripwires" to indicate some unlawful or terrorist activity is in progress or likely to take place.