Posted on 12/22/2018 6:28:50 PM PST by vannrox
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 agencies that have been authorized with this new power are the Intelligence Bureau, Narcotics Control Bureau, Enforcement Directorate, Central Board of Direct Taxes, Directorate of Revenue Intelligence, Central Bureau of Investigation, National Investigation Agency, Research and Analysis Wing, Directorate of Signal Intelligence (in service areas of J-K, North East, and Assam), and Delhi Police.
What if your “computer” is levels deep in VPNs and IP spoofing and such?
Sounds like “unmutual” is a crime not too far off on the horizon.
NWO agenda.
How ‘bout the death penalty for the Mumbai Microsoft Vindows support callers ?
Ha. I even send cash in an envelope for mine. STUPID people only pay by credit card when buying VPN lol
Who the hell do they think they are? The United States?!
I wonder what Elizabeth fauxhauntis thinks about this Indian development?
From my cold, dead keyboard.
Imagine the job that Indian agency would have on their hands, if it turned out that, one billion PCs and smartphones needed to be investigated/examine? The government wouldn’t have time for anything else, and the budget for such an examination would require all Indian citizens to turn over all their earnings, not just the taxes due.
Also imagine that hundreds of millions of those internet-connected devices had ‘illegal’ stuff in them (as defined by the government, of course). Would they have enough jails and prisons for even a fraction of those found with the illegal stuff?
“I even send cash in an envelope for mine”
Doesn’t the USPS have drug sniffing machines that would ID Ca$h as drugs for confiscation?
At this point, what does this even mean?
Do you not realize that our cell phone data, our health insurance data, our banking/financial data, our personal medical records are in the hands of people OUTSIDE of the USA and they have been for years? It stands to reason that “personal” computer records would be targeted - how else can they get to us?
Who remembers the “Peggy” commercials? Trust me, he is alive and well and has obviously been very busy since we last saw him. George Orwell was right, just the wrong year.
>>The government wouldn’t have time for anything else, and the budget for such an examination would require all Indian citizens to turn over all their earnings, not just the taxes due.<<
That isn’t the point of a law like this. What it does is make instant criminals out of millions of people. If the government decides it has a n unsavory interest in you - POOF you are a guilty party.
Also if you want to hide something from the government and the government, via this law, can make you unhide it.
This was described in detail in “Atlas Shrugged.”
The good news for Indians is that the systems that spy on them were written by Indians and are undoubtedly designed and coded so badly that 90% of the effort will be spent on keeping then running and 5% of the effort will be to ensure they produce useful results.
Since it’s internet based, this will reach into the United States.
Button up.
“What if your “computer” is levels deep in VPNs and IP spoofing and such?”
Probably would paint a big target your computer.
Looks like a lot of potential for wasted time and funds (too many people to sort out). Bullies (criminals) don’t often put much time into studying or practicing any defensive technologies or exercises. They prefer to use simple tricks and pre-packaged methods and tools instead (Windows, downloaded scripts, etc.).
So police could probably more easily attain success by recording tips from CIs, physically watching the criminals’ associations with other individuals to map networks (stakeouts, making trees of association on paper, etc.), explore histories and gathering physical evidence in time. With resulting probable cause, cracking known exploits would be an easy way around needing resources for decryption.
There’s much to say for old fashioned methods of investigation. Good public affairs is another way. One can simply ask questions of resident acquaintances who are somewhat trustworthy and feel like trusting. The only problem standing in the way of that is the “us vs. them” posture.
I guess that public official relationships with VPNs are developed and exploited much. A good VPN can protect one from private criminals and other private snoops, though, and are worth using. If someone gets into a client computer that’s running, though, use of a VPN will be for naught (OS/application instability, ports, etc.).
Communications and busybody neighbors looking to prevent business or social competition are such a mess, that it’s probably best for law abiding people to keep electronic communications uninteresting and about affairs other than business plans. Cleaning up most improper public sector uses of surveillance (neighbor vs. neighbor) with legislative and judicial remedies will take more time if done at all.
I'm sure they'd charge you with the Indian equivalent of obstruction.
For real decryption of encrypted drives with long keys on un-compromised, hardened systems, by the way, supercomputer resources are required. Those resources would be limited to cases with higher priority.
That said, I wouldn’t trust any cellphones or computers for discussing private information without open source hardware and software documentation with all developers having histories of dedication to free and open source hardware and software. In other words, not at all. An example...”private information” being plans for starting a new, high-margin or high-volume business for livelihood as differentiated from a slim-margin or low-volume business planned for hobby or pleasure.
“Levels deep” has been proven to be one good method, BTW, if other security methods are also followed (software stability, frequent security updates available, user education and so on). Anything connected can possibly be cracked through a net, though. It’s best to keep sensitive personal ID and other sensitive information out of computers and communications, but such information on everyone is available in government systems at the least (name, DOB, etc.). It’s all a batch of considerations of odds (chances).
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