Indian security agencies have suddenly gone into a tizzy. Over the last couple of years, terror attacks as well as terrorist threats have multiplied manifold across the nation. Internet has become de-facto mode of communication for most of these terrorist organizations. In a bid to track this communication, security agencies are trying to tap every internet channel.
They are now directly going after these websites / service providers which could be prone to being used by terrorists. The first target was RIM’s Blackberry where the data from where information came couldn’t be found out and this proved a security threat. After having a war of words with them, the government has given them a 31st January 2011 deadline to hand . And finally the thousands of Blackberry users in the country heaved a sigh of relief.
In a recent news, security agencies have also threatened to stop the 3G services in India as they are not able to track the conversations happening over 3G
And now the Indian government has trained its eyes on the third most popular email service in the world – Gmail to hand over its encryption keys.
Why the encryption keys cannot be handed over?
Be it Google, Gmail, Blackberry or any other site, encryption keys are used by sites to protect the users private data. Since these sites have information about people’s demographics, psychographic profile – leaving it out into the open could give rise to a huge number of problems.
What is the problem then?
The government has told Gmail to lower the encryption levels or hand over their keys so that they are able to monitor all the activities taking place.
This is beset with problems
This move by the government shows that our cyber cell is non – existent or completely pathetic. Our intelligence agencies seem to be asking for an easier route or lower encryption rather than improving their ability of decrypting higher levels of encryption.
Today they are banning Blackberry, tomorrow Gmail and day after Yahoo – like this we are encouraging the terrorists of their aim to directly / indirectly affect Indian citizens. The terrorists seem much more technologically advanced than our RAW!
Maybe till the time we are able to decrypt higher levels of encryption, they would have gone on to much more intricate technology!
I think the encrypted messages could be searched for key words and selected files could be shared instantaneously to the security agencies. That way privacy could still be maintained. National security is a valid concern.