The Government has set up a telecom network testing centre at the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore in a bid to address security concerns arising out of importing gear from foreign countries.
The centre is being set up at an estimated cost of Rs 60 crore, out of which, Government funding may be to the tune of Rs 50 crore.
“This decision had been taken due to the fact that in today's multi operator/vendor environment, risk-to-security of networks have nowadays increased considerably due to possible presence of malwares/security bugs in the network elements,” Mr Kapil Sibal, Minister for Communications and IT, said at a press conference.
The proposed centre would formulate standards and policies as well as provide facilities for testing, validation and security certification for various network elements in order to render the networks secure and less vulnerable from internal and external threats.
It would also involve creation of test bed facilities and capacity building for networks' security so that each network element is tested and validated before integration with the networks.
Clarifies on IISc-Huawei deal
In order to perform ‘testing' on recent generation of telecom hardware being manufactured world over, IISc Bangalore had simultaneously approached several vendors, including Cisco, Juniper and Huawei to share internal details of their telecom equipment, which are vital for detailed testing.
Mr Sibal clarified that Huawei was not helping IISc to set up the Lab.
The Minister was responding to a news report, which said that Huawei was helping IISc to set up the lab as no other equipment vendor showed interest.
“It may be understood that Huawei is not helping IISc Bangalore to set up any Lab as IISc has already set up the same as part of old pilot project, wherein all the equipment and software are theirs. MoU signed between the two is more like a non-disclosure agreement so that the information that IISc gets from Huawei is not disclosed to others.”
“Further, IISc Bangalore had contacted simultaneously several vendors from the US, Europe and Asia to give the internal details, for getting their telecom equipment tested. Selection of vendor is an on-going process and more vendors from the US, Europe and Asia will be selected for getting their telecom gear tested, as soon as they respond positively to IISc/Department of Communications,” he added.