800 crore setup to aid government in tracking all web traffic

Deeply troubled by the growing instances of terror attacks in the country, and their inability to deal with it in the absence of a sophisticated system has driven the government to take some tough steps. Now, Times of India reports that the government is in the process of setting up the National Cyber Coordination Centre (NCCC), an Internet scanning agency that will essentially monitor all the web traffic passing through all the Internet service providers operating in the country, for the government. The NCCC can then, in an event of a possible security threat to the nation issue ‘actionable alerts’ to the government, prompting quick action. A meeting, which took place on February 3, 2012, at the National Security Council Secretariat under the PMO, discussed the NCCC in detail. According to the report, the NCCC will, essentially “scan whole cyber traffic flowing at the point of entry and exit at India’s international internet gateways”.

Tighter measures for security (Image credit: Getty Images)

What does this mean for you and me? Simply put, once this system is in its place, all tweets, messages, emails, status updates and even e-mail drafts will go through the department’s scanner. The report adds that if the government senses any threat coming in from social media, it will extend its reach further. As talks further, the government will initiate a dialogue with several Internet service providers operating in the country, which include - Bharti Airtel, RCOM, BSNL, MTNL and Tata Communications, asking them to co-operate with the NCCC and provide real-time information and any details about any threats.

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Now comes the biggie. The government plans to invest a whopping Rs.800 crores into this setup. Quoting the Deputy National Security Advisor, Vijay Latha Reddy, the report stated that, “The coordination centre will be the first layer of threat monitoring in the country. It would always be in virtual contact with the control room of the Internet Service Providers.”