Published: Monday, Feb 28, 2011, 3:15 IST
By Harish Gupta | Place: New Delhi | Agency: DNA
http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report_govt-gets-cracking-on-phone-taps_1513499
The government appears to have finally woken up to the danger posed by private companies and individuals tapping millions of phones without authorisation and has decided to clamp down.
In a belated attempt at damage control, it has directed such persons and firms to submit details of equipment used for interception and surveillance of communications to the telecom enforcement wing immediately.
By doing this, the government has admitted that it allowed private companies and individuals to import such equipment under open general licence (OGL).
DNA was the first to report last December that National Technical Research Organisation (NTRO), a secret agency under the prime minister (PM), had submitted a report on the existence of a large number of off-the-air GSM/CDMA monitoring devices.
Various private companies and individuals had imported off-the-air-monitoring systems (OTAMS) under OGL without check or record, the report said. The devices, which enable monitoring of any mobile telephone in a 5-km radius, were imported on the pretext of critical information infrastructure protection, it said.
The confidential report also stated that 21 vendors, including six official agencies in New Delhi, Gurgaon and Noida, were selling these machines, introduced in NTRO in 2005.
The matter surfaced when former Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh’s phone was tapped by a private company “without authorisation”. With the surfacing of the Niira Radia tapes and NTRO’s confidential report, a worried PM ordered that “telephone conversation to systems outside the institutional framework of government must be prevented”.
While the government discontinued import of OTAMS under OGL last year, it has now asked all existing owners to get their machines registered.
By Harish Gupta | Place: New Delhi | Agency: DNA
http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report_govt-gets-cracking-on-phone-taps_1513499
The government appears to have finally woken up to the danger posed by private companies and individuals tapping millions of phones without authorisation and has decided to clamp down.
In a belated attempt at damage control, it has directed such persons and firms to submit details of equipment used for interception and surveillance of communications to the telecom enforcement wing immediately.
By doing this, the government has admitted that it allowed private companies and individuals to import such equipment under open general licence (OGL).
DNA was the first to report last December that National Technical Research Organisation (NTRO), a secret agency under the prime minister (PM), had submitted a report on the existence of a large number of off-the-air GSM/CDMA monitoring devices.
Various private companies and individuals had imported off-the-air-monitoring systems (OTAMS) under OGL without check or record, the report said. The devices, which enable monitoring of any mobile telephone in a 5-km radius, were imported on the pretext of critical information infrastructure protection, it said.
The confidential report also stated that 21 vendors, including six official agencies in New Delhi, Gurgaon and Noida, were selling these machines, introduced in NTRO in 2005.
The matter surfaced when former Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh’s phone was tapped by a private company “without authorisation”. With the surfacing of the Niira Radia tapes and NTRO’s confidential report, a worried PM ordered that “telephone conversation to systems outside the institutional framework of government must be prevented”.
While the government discontinued import of OTAMS under OGL last year, it has now asked all existing owners to get their machines registered.
