200 ISPs, 1200 products classified as ‘trusted products’ in telecom sector: Rajesh Pant

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Over 200 ISPs and 1,200 products have been classified as trusted products as part of the National Security Directive on Telecommunication Sector (NSDTS), National Cyber Security Coordinator Lt. General (retd) Rajesh Pant said on July 1.

Pant, who was speaking at “Cyber Manthan: Consultation on Securing India’s Cyber Space from Emerging Threats” organised by Microsoft and Indian Future Foundation, informed that as part of determining whether products and ISPs were ‘trusted’ his office has been looking into companies to determine where the products are coming from.

“We are going into the ultimate beneficiaries of the company — whether it has any links with intelligence or military establishment of a particular country, and then classifying as a trusted source,” Pant said.

He also added that the government was looking into the software of these products “That’s a very difficult task. I can tell you because a lot of software these days is open source,” Pant said.

From June 15, 2021, telecom service providers (TSPs) have been mandatorily required to connect their networks with only those new devices which are designated as ‘Trusted Products’ from ‘Trusted Sources’. An assessment is made of the vendors and the sources of the components to determine whether they are Trusted Sources and Trusted products which are then intimated to the vendor concerned and the applicant TSPs to make their procurements, the Department of Telecommunications said.

Additionally, Pant also informed that the ‘trusted product’ system will also apply to captive public and non-public networks.

“Let me share with you, the new concept of the captive public, non-public networks – recently it was announced that spectrum will be given to the private networks — the concept of trusted sources and products will apply to them also,” he added.

Recently, the Department of Telecommunications issued norms for setting up 5G private captive networks.

According to a CNBC TV 18 report, a private captive 5G network is basically a network set up by a private entity for the use of just one organisation. It is similar to a captive coal mine in that the 5G service offered by this captive network will only be utilised by the enterprise concerned, and no one else.