Snooping fears: India's diplomatic staff in UK turns to typewriters

In this age of NSA snooping, the personal computer is out and the ancient typewriter is back in.

According to a report in the Times of India, British High commissioner Jamini Bhagwati has asked his staff to return to typewriters.

He told TOI:

“Top secret cables are never conveyed through the internet or machines with cable connections. External hard drives with tremendous amount of data storage capacity are easy to access. Therefore, top secret cables are written on the typewriter which can’t be tracked.”

The staff has been asked not to discuss anything important or highly classified due to fear of spy bugs, adds the report. You can read the full TOI report here.

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[caption id=“attachment_1137541” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] A typewriter is seen in this file photo. AFP[/caption]

The decision seems wise given the recent revelations by whistleblower Edward Snowden, who revealed how America’s National Security Agency (NSA) had used a wide and global system to track pretty much everything on the web.

According to reports , NSA’s data mining and surveillance was not just limited to the US but extended to other countries as well, including India. US used a programme called Boundless Informant to spy on other countries and India was number five on the list.

However, the Indian government could face another problem with the move to typewriters. There’s no one manufacturing them anymore.