Indian Government Threatens RIM, Skype With Ban 281
gauharjk writes "India's Department of Telecommunications has been asked by the government to serve a notice to Skype and Research In Motion to ensure that their email and other data services comply with formats that can be read by security and intelligence agencies, or face a ban in India if they do not comply within 15 days. A similar notice is also being sent to Google, asking it to provide access to content on Gmail in a readable format."
Hmmm... (Score:5, Insightful)
Glad I don't correspond with anyone in India.
Hey, Little Brother? (Score:4, Insightful)
Yeah, you're doing it wrong. Just use MITM DNS attacks to use fake SSL certs.
Love, China.
Re:This is all from the Mumbai terror attacks (Score:5, Insightful)
Double or Politics? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:This is all from the Mumbai terror attacks (Score:2, Insightful)
Bank robbers don't kill 175 and wound 308 people.
Furthermore, cars are regulated, stealing a car to commit a felony is an extra felony, driving a car to take someone else to a bank robbery is a felony.
Re:This is all from the Mumbai terror attacks (Score:2, Insightful)
This is the reason behind the license plate. If a car is used in a crime it simplifies locating the registered owner of the vehicle.
The problem with that approach (Score:4, Insightful)
But, as everybody knows, the Bush administration had more than enough information to do the job long before the terrorists ever hit us. What was needed isn't more information, what was needed was better use of the existing information. (Notice that I'm not using the word intelligence. Clearly, Bush needed more intelligence, but that would not be forthcoming.) But we can expect our leaders to make lazy, self-serving choices rather than to take on the hard jobs they seemed to want so badly.
India is an authoritarian state, perfectly comfortable with internal corruption and cronyism. This choice, to compel telecommunications businesses to open up their data for 'security and intelligence' agencies, will surely be abused for political reasons and its impact on security will be marginal.
Re:This is all from the Mumbai terror attacks (Score:1, Insightful)
Not if the vehicle is stolen, or the license plate is stolen or forged.
Re:This is all from the Mumbai terror attacks (Score:5, Insightful)
Bank robbers usually escape in cars so maybe we should ban automobiles to cut down on the number of bank robberies! Its' the same logic.
To be fair, the automobiles have 15 days to comply with publishing who is in the car and coordinates of all travel.
Governments are the problem, not the solution (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:But if students in India can't access Google, (Score:1, Insightful)
Only if you pronounce "orange" like a tool.
Requirements Engineering 101 (Score:2, Insightful)
RIM, Skype, and Google's communications already "comply with formats that can be read by security and intelligence agencies" if the government wants to wiretap the suspects upstream of their devices.
Can it be read? Print it out or keep it on the screen, your choice.
Is it human-readable? Sure!
Does it mean anything on first glance? That's questionable.
I am merely playing devil's advocate.
Re:The problem with that approach (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:The problem with that approach (Score:2, Insightful)
Insightful? RIM is Canadian and SKYPE is owned by companies and investment groups from at least 2 countries, one group being the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board.
Re:The problem with that approach (Score:2, Insightful)
India is an authoritarian state
Wow you are retarded.
Re:So what happens if google says ok!? (Score:3, Insightful)
One famous example (though a movie, not TV... and yes, I know it was a book first): The dirt poor Joads from _The Grapes of Wrath_ had a truck.
Desparate Housewives: On one income, everyone's living in a large house and has two cars. Even the one with more kids than I can count. Oh, and when one becomes _really_ poor when her husband is blinded, the extent of her problems is she has to drive to WalMart-equivalent to shop. (Yes, that's satire... you and I recognize that. But would someone from a third-world country?)
Married, With Children: Same idea. Al's a shoe salesman, his wife doesn't work. He's still got a house and a car.
Probably any sitcom not about the upper class has this issue; the supposed working-class as portrayed on those shows has an embarrassment of riches from a third-world perspective.
Re:This is all from the Mumbai terror attacks (Score:4, Insightful)
Because using ducks or oranges in a bank heist would be too hard to understand.
Yeah, but wouldn't that be awesome?
ROBBER: OK, everybody on the floor- I have a duck here, and I'm not afraid to use it!
TELLER: Umm... [trembling] Uh... um OK... [looks around nervously]
ROBBER: [Hurls orange netted plastic bag at teller] Now fill this! Now! And no dye packs! [Waves duck threateningly]
DUCK: [struggling] Quack! Quack quack!
TELLER: Yes sir, whatever you say... [frantically starts packing the bag with oranges]
DUCK: Quack!
Suddenly a loud alarm pierces the air. The robber jumps onto the counter and grabs the bag; loose oranges fly everywhere. He makes a mad dash for the exit. but finds that the doors are locked.
ROBBER: Fuck!
Kicks door repeatedly, then swings the bag of oranges at the glass; which disintegrates in an explosion of glass shards. A dye pack hidden among the oranges goes off.
ROBBER: You fuckers, I said no dye packs!
TELLER: Uh, honest, I didn't know... well look sir, it's orange dye anyway...
Robber throws duck at the teller, then struggles through the broken glass.
DUCK: [enraged] Quack quack! Quack quack! Quack quack quack!
TELLER: [screaming] Aaagh- it's a duck on me! Help! Duck! Please!
New scene. Several minutes later- first police officer enters the bank.
COP: Watch it- duck! [Pulls pistol, fires round at duck]
DUCK: Quack!
Several seconds of silence...
TELLER #2: Wow- thanks... what a relief! How did this guy get his hands on a duck anyway?
COP: We try to stop them when they go through the airports, but now they're starting to hide the ducks up their asses as they go through security.
TELLER #2 What do you do when you find someone trying to sneak a duck into the country?
COP: Well, the first thing you need to do is get some Dawn dishwashing detergent...
Re:indian govt is a bunch of... (Score:2, Insightful)
... run away from this rotten country to us/uk/australia.
And you think that it will better in those countries? Think again - in these countries your internet and phone traffic is monitored already. Think NSA ... Search for "nsa internet monitoring" on Google. And another example - EU To Monitor All Internet Searches" [slashdot.org].
Is there any country left on this earth, where there's mutual trust between government and its citizens and therefor no need to monitor internet and phone traffic?
The grass is not always greener on the other side.
Re:Intelligence? I think not... (Score:4, Insightful)
Do you think it is really about fighting terrorism?
The British government justified spying powers "to fight terrorism", but they were actually used to fight minor offences (dog fouling, fly-tipping, government employee false sickness claims).
Just like the British government, the Indian government cannot really say they need to compromise human rights to make it cheaper to police minor offences, or too keep an eye on people doing perfectly legal things the government and police disapprove of (which also happened in Britain).
Re:INDIA / SOUTHEAST ASIA BASHING (Score:2, Insightful)
Unfortunately, Slashdot is more or less a support group for disgruntled techies, and the focus of their ire for the past several years has been on outsourcing. Oddly, if you suggest to one of these "creative thinkers" (who laugh at the lack of creativity of their overseas counterparts) to start their own company so that they may then hire pure-blooded u.s. citizens, they'll balk. The irony is that these self-proclaimed paragons of creativity themselves lack the creative spark to be entrepreneurs. I believe money talks. I'm a small business owner, and I put a lot of my money where my mouth is regarding my ideas. Arm-chair "creative thinkers" just make a mockery of those with real ideas who've borrowed heavily from a bank, betting the farm on whether their ideas will succeed. Similarly, the arm-chair critics of how much indian companies "suck" should, if they truly believe such indian companies like Infosys are destined to fail, short-sell the stock on the market. It's a public company, and it's easy to short-sell (betting the company tanks). My guess is the same courageous types who thump their chests with ferocity on the soap box that is slashdot will run away with their tails between their legs when it comes to betting with real money on the stock market.
You're wrong (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:But if students in India can't access Google, (Score:3, Insightful)
"Birth (just try to go back the other way)"
Men have been doing that since the dawn of time. :P
Re:The problem with that approach (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:You're wrong (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:This is all from the Mumbai terror attacks (Score:3, Insightful)
Those kids who die are poor kids with no money for buying political favors, the government couldn't care less about them.
Re:So what happens if google says ok!? (Score:3, Insightful)