Indian government to set up agency to scan emails, tweets and updates?

Asia Bizz: After a huge objectionable content argument, the Indian government has decided to set up an agency that will have the responsibility to monitor all web traffic passing through the internet service providers in the country. The new scanning agency will be called as the National Cyber Coordination Centre (NCCC).

The NCCC will be issuing ‘actionable alerts’ to the government departments in cases of perceived security threats. The new measure has been taken after the government has constantly failed to prevent many terror attacks due to the absence of a credible internet scanning system.

On February 3, 2012,  a meeting was held at the National Security Council Secretariat under the PMO. IT was decided in the meeting that the National Cyber Coordination Centre will be scanning the whole cyber traffic flowing at the point of entry as well as exit at India’s international internet gateways. The web scanning centre will also provide actionable alerts for proactive actions to be taken by the governments.

The government departments will now be talking to the internet service providers like MTNL, BSNL, RCOM, Bharti Airtel and Tata Communications through the NCCC for real time information as well as data in threats. Reports have even said that the government plans to invest about 800 crore in the set up.