Telecom ministry warns against networks supplied by China's Huawei

After trying to infiltrate into computers used by German Chancellor Angela Merkel, US Defence Secretary Robert Gates and the British foreign office, emails of Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd besides websites of foreign ministries and embassies of over 100 hundred countries including India, Chinese hackers might cripple the Indian communication networks.

The Ministry of Communication and Information Technology has warned the state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) that the network devices supplied by Chinese telecom giant Huawei may facilitate the Chinese hackers to install back door entries, remote login facilities, design malwares like Trojan horses to topple Indian networks.

The ministry has made it clear that all such technologies must be tested before being put to use.

Last week, BSNL conferred the 93-million-line GSM expansion project, worth Rs 30,000 crore to Huawei.

However, its services for now will be restricted to the southern states of the country, as these regions don't share borders with sensitive neighbouring countries such as China, Bangladesh and Pakistan.

Moreover, the communication ministry also notified that networks provided by companies such as Huawei can go operational only after proper security review for trapdoors, blackboxes, malwares, and also, if it is susceptible to remote hacking.

The Department of Telecom (DoT), in a communication to BSNL's chairman and managing director Kuldeep Goyal, said that the telco should completely take over the maintenance of its networks from foreign operators within a time frame of not less than two years.

A senior Home Ministry official said, "There is a high probability that all these Chinese hardware, which are cheaply available in the markets, are embedded with malware and malicious equipments.
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Intelligence agencies have recommended that government offices must not use Chinese hardware in their computers."
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He added that the cyber crooks are eyeing the networks and websites used by the India Inc.

Because of security reasons the Department of Telecommunication (DoT) banned the use of cellphones without a unique International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) number. (IMEI) from April 1.

The order came after the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks when the Intelligence Bureau (IB) had objected to the sale and use of cellphones with fake IMEI numbers that made it almost impossible for investigators to track down suspicious calls made by terrorists.

The intelligence agencies categorically warned that some Chinese multinational companies and hardware manufacturers may have been working hand-in-glove with Chinese cyber crooks.

Almost a year back, one such Chinese MNC was put under intelligence scanner based on the inputs that the company's India-based offices were involved in hacking some Korean official websites.

Sources said that the company was provided with more than US $ 5 billion by the Chinese government to expand its Indian operations.

Dark Visitors

GhostNet, an international online spy network run by Chinese hackers, infected computers in over 100 countries by spyware that enabled them to steal classified information.

Iran's foreign ministry website was among those targeted.

Apart from this, embassies of India, South Korea, Indonesia, Romania, Cyprus, Malta, Thailand, Taiwan, Portugal, Germany and Pakistan were also hacked into.