India turns its focus to Google and Skype

Over the past few months, Indian government officials have been in discussion with Research in Motion in order to establish the safety of its Blackberry device security. New reports have announced that officials are now turning their attention to telecom firms within the country, to ascertain the security levels of the data being transferred.

The new scrutiny is thought to affect large companies including Google and Skype, as India examines the security of communications processes, issuing a new directive which demands access to all inner workings and processes within telecoms companies.

The Indian Home Ministry spokesperson has reported to have stated that any company which operates a telecoms network needs to be visible and accessible for analysis. The statement included both Google and Skype within the new directive.

In addition to examining the security behind key telecommunications networks, Indian officials will also be targeting private networks which provide access to companies with employees who operate out of the office. The move is thought to have been instigated by concerns over risks from terrorism. A spokesperson from Gartner has suggested that the Indian government simply has a list of things to consider, and telecoms security is one task on the list: “The government is simply working its way down the to-do list. It is based on the ICT Act of 2000 which was revised in 2008. This is about interpreting that act and offering guidance to companies. It is one thing to have a law, but companies don’t know how to configure their systems and these are more specific rules.”

“Skype has a similar issue to Blackberry, in so far as it uses a proprietary protocol and no-one knows what is under the hood.”

Google and Skype both operate encryption as part of their service to customers, and while the firms have not yet had any demands from Indian governmental officials, it remains to be seen how the new security regulations will affect them.

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