Defense ministry is building its own routers to secure communications

The Defence Ministry is working on developing indigenous second generation routers in order to secure the armed forces communication networks, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar said on Saturday. Speaking at the golden jubilee celebrations of the Goa Engineering College here, he also offered the Goa-based institution opportunities to collaborate with Defence Ministry research bodies. “Router is important in telecommunications. For our telecommunication not to leak, the router has to be made by us, because one does not know what router has what trapdoor or backdoor,” he said. The Defence Minister also said that even the US had realized that the routers they used had bugs and trapdoors, which can potentially act as facilitators for leakage of information. “So information has become an important tool. We cannot have routers basically, which are functioning abroad where there might be bugs to sabotage or to ensure leakage of vital information or data. We should have routers of our own creation, for at least important networking,” he said. Parrikar also said that an agreement had been signed with ANURAG (Advanced Numerical Research and Analysis Group) for development of a second generation router. The Defence Minister also said that he had secured admissions at the Goa Engineering College, but opted for the Indian Institute of Technology Mumbai as he requested the institution to write to him if they wanted to collaborate on projects with the Defence Research and Development Organisation. “Defence has wide scope. I am ready to offer a positive collaboration with various Defence institutes. IANS