A draft of National Telecom Security Policy has grabbed the attention of MHA (Ministry of Home Affairs). MHA has raised concerns regarding the proposed draft on the context of security. Shiv Shankar Menon, National Security Advisor, to discuss the same before the clearance of bill, has called a crucial meeting. Once National Security Committee clears the bill then only the Cabinet Committee will take it up for Security. The concerns of MHA will be taken up by the Board whose members are the policy makers of cyber security in Sep 03rd 2013 meeting.
Home Ministry has raised 4-5 issues, not catered during the making of policy. MHA has raised these issues well in advance during the making of bill to the Telecom Department. The approval of National Information Board is sought by Telecom Department before bringing it to table of Cabinet Committee. However, the concerns of Home Ministry may prolong the same, as the proposed draft by telecom department might need to be re-worked.
There is a joint concern of “privacy” by Home Ministry, Dept. of Personnel and Training and DoT. The draft has pointed out that India is heavily dependent on imported core telecom equipment and this has made domestic network open to more unseen threats as it can be managed remotely. The Home Ministry’s concern about Chinese Market has resulted in framing Telecom Security standards. As per the proposed policy, the procurement has to be done from trusted Indian or foreign sources and operators have to audit their networks yearly for bugs and security breaches.
The attempt made by both the ministry demonstrate more coordinated effort to bring couscous policy out at the earliest to increase security through stringent policy framework implementation
