India’s Upcoming PRISM Gets a Boost With Israeli Interception Tools Deal

It’s already clear that India will have a Central Monitoring System (CMS) put in place later this year to monitor phone and internet communications, though some of its technicalities have yet to be finalized. But now the scheme for India’s version of America’s PRISM spying program is a major step closer to reality with an Israeli cyber intelligence solutions provider called Verint Systems (NASDAQ:VRNT) thought to be signed up by Indian authorities to provide the necessary interception tools.

As reported by The Economic Times, a team from Verint recently met Indian communications minister Kapil Sibal in Israel. Plus, Sibal has briefed Israel’s IT and communications minister Gilad Erdan about approaching Verint for India’s cybersecurity program.

The Economic Times saw a note that read:

Verint is willing to work with the Indian government to address the issue of intercepting encrypted communications like Gmail, Yahoo-. mail and others. It will shortly co-ordinate with DoT’s security wing and CERT-In teams to implement a customised interception solution.

Tapping Gmail, Skype, BBM, and more

India’s CMS will not only extend to phone, SMS, and email intercepts but will also tap into Skype, BlackBerry’s BBM service, and any other form of online communication or web browsing. CMS is meant as a way to unearth terrorists and crime syndicates, but the system raises serious privacy concerns about the extent of its snooping.

Earlier this month, BlackBerry (NASDAQ:BBRY) came to an agreement with the Indian government to allow lawful intercepts of BlackBerry’s BBM and other consumer-oriented services after a stalemate that dated back to 2010. The Canadian’s firm’s BlackBerry Enterprise Server remains off-limits to authorities.

The Indian government has long been keen to gain access to popular but encrypted online tools like Gmail and Skype. Its new CMS is scheduled to go live in December 2013.

(Source: Economic Times, via Hacker News; Image: Hacker’s News Bulletin)

(Editing by C. Custer)