International Law

Would you like to plug the Indernet?

By admin

Anybody heard of CERT-IN? It’s an Indian CERT (computer emergency response team) that has been in the news for all the wrong reasons.

In 2003, CERT-IN issued a directive through the department of telecommunications asking all ISPs to block a particular URL (a yahoogroup mailing list set up by an obscure separatist group). The ISPs that implemented this ban did so by blocking the entire yahoogroups website and resulting in collective bewilderment among Internet users. In 2006, another directive required ISPs to block a few random websites such as..blogspot! Blogs that were blocked as a result included mumbaihelp.blogspot.com, a blog that was set up to provide assistance to those affected by bomb blasts that had recently taken place in Mumbai.

Last month, it issued a widely publicised advisory on vulnerabilities in Google products…after Google clarified that these vulnerabilities had never been exploited and had been rectified.

Why is this relevant today? Well, I just happened to notice a position vacant in CERT-IN. Would you like to be director at the agency that takes the cake for incompetence in India?

Oops, I just might get CERT-INed!

Full post as published by Technology Law India on October 16, 2007 (boomark / email).