The Hindu Business Line : CERT tie-ups raise hackles among domestic vendors

CERT is the nodal agency for responding to computer security incidents. Its mandate includes assisting Indian Government, public sector and corporate entities in setting up proactive counter measures against virus attacks and hostile intrusions into their respective networks.

CERT recently signed a memorandum of understanding with Trend Micro. Top officials said CERT has similar tie-ups with Symantec, Computer Associates and McAfee.

Indian vendors are peeved that the government body has preferred foreign agencies to them. In fact, Indian vendors have already received recognition in the US and UK. For instance Pune-based CAT Computers Ltd has already been certified by West Coast Labs of the US for its anti-virus software "Quickheal." CAT Computers has a Checkmark Level II certification from West Coast. Besides it has also received the more difficult certification from the UK - Virus Bulletin 16 for detection and elimination of malware.

Not contacted at all

CAT Computer's director, Mr Sanjay Katkar, said, "I am surprised that we were never contacted. Actually when CERT-In started couple of years ago, we had contacted them and shown interest to co-operate in information exchange." I think CERT-In should also think of partnering with local company as it is a matter of cyber security." But, CERT officials said they are willing to tie up with Indian companies if they come forward.

CERT's tie-up allows access to virus data and analysis for counter measures.

Security concerns

Security agencies are not very comfortable with the nature of the tie up. Security officials indicated that such tie-ups would allow the US companies to function as "Listening Posts" for virus traffic. Worse, it would also reveal the underbelly of the India's IT infrastructure. In a situation when relations become hostile, adversaries would find such data useful weapons for cyber warfare, they said.

But the cyber infrastructure is already under attack. By CERT's own admission, there were 34 incidents of cyber intrusion in November alone. Between January and November this year, there were 2,604 incidents of defacements of Indian Web sites. "The only way to secure the infrastructure was not by excluding foreign agencies. Domestic companies also need to be taken on board in such ventures," sources said.

In fact, domestic anti-virus entities, like CAT Computers Ltd and Proland Software Systems already have proven capability in virus analysis. The technical capabilities include setting up Sampling Labs, (where computers are infected and virus behaviour analysed on a real time basis), Sand boxing (a more expensive option of creating a virtual environment of studying virus behaviour) and Reverse Engineering. The last one is far more difficult since virus/malware/Trojan source codes could be masked or decoyed. Therefore, only considerable experience and skilled hands are capable of creating counter.

However, even in these difficult areas Indian entities have excelled. Companies such as CAT, Proland and K7 Computers have found a mention in the AVAR (Association of Anti-Virus Asia Researcher) listing. Yet none of these anti-virus vendors even find mention in the CERT listing of anti-virus resources.