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September 25, 2002 New Delhi
Time to be alert and prepare adequate preventive measures against mischief

International Conference on Telecom Security lays guidelines for identifying measures for security services, emphasizes on digital certification.

Vinod Vaish, Chairman, Telecom Commission and Secretary DoT, today called for different concepts of the burden of proof and investigation, and faster pace of dispensation of justice in the telecommunications sector, in order to ensure security of networks that are becoming critical to the country.

Inaugurating the Telecom Security India 2002 international conference, Vaish said that the IT Act was only the first step in ensuring security. But the most important one was creating widespread awareness of the security concept itself. "Ours is a lightly policed country", Vaish pointed out. "We assume that the bulk of people are law abiding and peaceful. But the time has come to be alert and prepare with adequate preventive measures against mischief."

Delivering the keynote address, Dr. DPS Seth, Member - Services & technology, Ministry of Communications. & IT, said that the importance of making all people in an organization aware of the need to define risks and the environment that affected security, and the constant and repeated reviews of the security situation were key to protecting network systems from unauthorized access -- either by hackers or criminal elements.

Dr. Seth suggested that every institution should have a designated security officer, identify measures for security services and build firewalls, and have constantly changing access codes to prevent unauthorized access. Digital certification was a very important step in securing information access and protecting confidentiality of data. He said that security was a battle of wits between two sets of intelligent people -- one who are protecting the network and one who would be trying to disrupt them. "Awareness of a breach and the ability to analyze how it came about, and review the process of detection and correction are the key to securing networks," Dr. Seth emphasized.

In his welcome address, Prem Behl, Editor of Convergence Plus, said that security is becoming critical for e-commerce and financial transactions, and new security concepts like biometrics walls are now being considered. In this context, the magazine had arranged a security conference to generate a proactive approach so that security would be built deeper and deeper in networks.

Wen-Ming Wong, CTO, Datacraft Asia, a leading communications and network systems integrator and e-business enabler; Yehuda Sorek, Director Sales & Marketing (Asia Pacific) Verint Systems, a global organization providing analytical software solutions for communications interception, digital video security and surveillance; and Alex Last, President & CEO, Las Technologies Pte Ltd were the other speakers at the inaugural session.

The issues discussed at the conference were "Security threats for optical and broadband access networks and Security for wireless communications and threats to 2.5G and 3G wireless networks. Some of the speakers were Ashok Juneja, CEO, Bharti Broadband Networks Ltd, Biswapati Chaudhuri, Joint Wireless Advisor to GoI, Ministry of Commincations & IT, Kang Eu Ween, Regional Manager, Security Services, Datacraft Asia Ltd, and Adam Weinberg, Director - Technology Security Group, Nice Systems Ltd.

Telecom Security India 2002 International Conference organized by Convergence Plus, is a two-day event highlighting the need to secure business information networks in the light of increasing competition in the telecom sector.