Told telcos to implement security policy, says telecom secretary Aruna Sundararajan

Telecom secretary Aruna Sundararajan Thursday said that the government has asked all mobile service providers to come up with a comprehensive security policy in order to ward off any threat on telecom networks.

“We have asked all telcos to have full fledged security policy and we are doing audits. We are in the process to set up a Computer Emergency Response Team (Cert) for the telecom sector,” Sundararajan said.

The top official also said that the Ministry of Communications is closely working with the Ministry of Electronics and IT (MeitY) to mitigate security-related concerns and seeking information on how data is shared and accessed across platforms.

The Indian Telegraph Act, according to Sundararajan, has clearly laid down that every product should comply with international security standards.

“If there is any single security breach instance, the telecom department ( DoT) will look into it,” she added.

Following a report released by the US Department of Defense in May 2013 claiming intrusions originating from China designed to steal confidential information, the Indian government has accelerated efforts to set up network testing lab locally.

The National Cyber Coordination Centre (NCCC) that has been set up by the government has become operational and intends to screen communication metadata.

The department is also working to scale up the centre’s capabilities to identify the cause and location of breach.

“Our lives are revolving around mobile phones. The department should look at how Chinese companies are checking data flow outside, and they should be allowed to set up servers in India, and come up with cogent solutions,” Piyush Goel, Minister of Railways and Coal said.

Goel said that Internet provides a great opportunity to all including startups to integrate it with public services.

With the advent of 5G, India has become one of the few countries to transform quickly from 2G to 3G and 4G, and now to a newer technology, the minister added.

The Ministry of Railways, according to him, has asked its communications wing RailTel to scale up the ongoing Wi-Fi project together with the US technology giant Google.

RailTel is working with Google to bring 400 railway stations Wi-Fi enabled.

“We have asked RailTel to provide information access opportunity to rural India and connect thousands of Wi-Fi hotspots,” Goel said.

The minister also said that there should be a round the clock access to affordable Internet and mobile access as India aspires to give energy to the countrymen.