The Indian government has authorized 10 central agencies to intercept, monitor, and decrypt data on any computer, sending a shock wave through citizens and privacy watchdogs.
Narendra Modi’s government late Thursday broadened the scope of Section 69 of the nation’s IT Act, 2000 to require a subscriber, service provider, or any person in charge of a computer to “extend all facilities and technical assistance to the agencies.” Failure to comply with the agencies could result in seven years of imprisonment and an unspecified fine.
In a clarification posted today, the Ministry of Home Affairs said each case of interception, monitoring, and decryption is to be approved by the competent authority, which is the Union Home Secretary.
The move should do wonders for the Indian IT industry.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Saturday December 22 2018, @07:42PM (5 children)
That is one of those self aggrandizing, self important terms that means nothing. Translated into common layman terms, "I'm bigger/stronger/tougher/have more guns than you, so you better do as I say."
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Saturday December 22 2018, @08:21PM
SNAFU
If people don't resist, they will get fucked. If they do resist, they'll probably get killed. Pretty tough choice.
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 3, Interesting) by edIII on Saturday December 22 2018, @08:39PM (3 children)
Except they defined it quite specifically as the "Union Home Secretary". Looking that up, that is supposed to be this Rajiv Gauba [wikipedia.org].
I'm against mass surveillance, but if a US judge ruled there was cause to access data, I can't argue that it isn't due process. I don't know how the Indian government works, but this might be in line with their idea of due process.
Just playing devil's advocate here. It sounded pretty bad right up till that last sentence. Now it's really a question of how due process works in India and how civil rights are protected. That, and I don't know how this one dude can scale into mass surveillance if each and every interception requires his signature.
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 2) by MostCynical on Saturday December 22 2018, @09:02PM (2 children)
"I hereby authorize all requests to unlock any device made by anyone in any government department
signed, Rajiv Gauba"
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 2) by edIII on Saturday December 22 2018, @09:13PM (1 child)
LOL. I don't think he can sign away his entire fucking job like that.
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 5, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 22 2018, @11:14PM
He didn't sign it away. He outsourced it to India.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 22 2018, @07:57PM (5 children)
I imagine you're being sarcastic, but I think you're absolutely right. Really what they did was create a massive impetus for creating open sourced hardware level security. And they did it in a country where there are lots of people with the chops to do it.
So yeah. Get ready for the India Secure CPU and bus architecture to be the next big thing.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 22 2018, @08:26PM (3 children)
Lol what? Indians do rote tasks cheap. Where is the last thing they innovated? And I'm not talking about the ones who moved here and aren't going back, doesn't count. I've used russian software, chinese, english, US, etc the absolute only way I've encountered any indian code is because some US company used them as indentured servants.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 22 2018, @08:36PM
There /is/ calibre, although thats a huge steaming PoS that's only popular because it has no competition.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 23 2018, @03:26PM (1 child)
I do hope there are some Indian engineers who read that. Because you're just making it a point of pride by being a racist dick.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 24 2018, @06:47AM
That is not racist.
There are several types/races in India including people from several surrounding country's.
In this case "India" / "Indian" refers to a geographic area.
Get an education you mother locking sjw ass.
(Score: 2) by hendrikboom on Saturday December 22 2018, @09:40PM
Like maybe a mass-produced free-as-in-freedom RISC-V chip to be used in computers in classrooms? That's something that might be cost-effective for a government of a billion people to do.
And no royalties to spend out of the country!
(Score: 4, Insightful) by PinkyGigglebrain on Saturday December 22 2018, @10:37PM (1 child)
So now any company that outsources project development to India will have to worry even more about their trade secrets or confidential designs getting stolen.
What was that line?
"The odds of a secret getting leaked is proportional to the square of the number of people who know it."
Not that many small companies/startups worry about that anyway. Oh the stories I could tell if not for NDAs :)
"Beware those who would deny you Knowledge, For in their hearts they dream themselves your Master."
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 23 2018, @08:05PM
Never under estimate the bandwidth of a station wagon full of encrypted micro SD cards.
(Score: 1) by TrentDavey on Sunday December 23 2018, @12:26AM (1 child)
If it means silencing that guy that keeps calling me from "Microsoft Vindows", I'm all for it.
(Score: 2) by fyngyrz on Sunday December 23 2018, @01:58AM
Nah. It just means that in addition to that guy's helpful phone calls, you're going to be on an Indian list as a "Microsoft Vindows User", or perhaps on the "Not a Microsoft Vindows User" list instead.
--
Junk - stuff we throw away. Stuff - junk we keep.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 23 2018, @11:04AM
Australia did this first [news.com.au]