Updated: September 15, 2020 6:49:17 am
Also on the list are the former Chairman of the Intellectual Property Appeals Board, Judge K Basha (IPAB) and Judge S Usha, former IPAB Vice President.
Taking note of The Indian Express investigation from a Shenzhen company with ties to the Chinese government and the Communist Party of China, which is monitoring thousands of people, The Indian security establishment, which deals directly with cyber security, is assessing the depth of the data being collected and the risks it may pose to national security.
Senior government officials said an assessment is being prepared for national security adviser Ajit Doval. “While the reports clearly indicate the scale of the operation, we are more concerned with its depth: at what level of detail the Chinese company is profiling people in terms of data points, the financial investment in hardware facilitated by its partners, and the need to improve cyber hygiene on our part, ”said a senior official.
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Simultaneously, the disclosures are being discussed at the level of the ministries involved, including the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeITY), which has a division specialized in cyber law and electronic security. “We are analyzing the scope of the operation. Since it involves the president and the prime minister, the political establishment has to make a decision on what the government’s response should be, ”said an official who did not want to be named.
Sources said that while many companies collect personal data of a similar nature by scraping open source platforms, given that it is a Chinese company that works with military and security agencies, the government is concerned about the end use and end user. . “By itself, granular data may not be revealing, but tracked over a few years, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, using sophisticated analytical tools, open source data on an individual can be a great information asset. More so, if he is a senior official or in a strategic environment, ”said one official. “We need to go through the entire list and identify cyber hygiene issues.”
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The Indian Express reported Monday that at least 10,000 Indian people and organizations, from politics to business, from the judiciary to the media, even accused of crimes, are being monitored in real time online by the firm. big data company Zhenhua Data, serving the Chinese government and People’s Liberation. Army.
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