Major risk: Security data breach feared

Hyderabad: In what could be a major breach to national security data especially the defence sector, the Central Bureau of Indirect Taxes and Customs daily list page that has crucial information has been leaked.  The trade data contains details of 22 defence related products that were imported by India, along with their quantities for the financial year 2015- 2016. The leaked page is likely to provide India’s cross-border enemies details of its defence imports. Ironically, this information was leaked when the legislature was in the process of discussing the Data Protection Bill.

The four-page data was sniffed out by independent security researcher Mr Srinivas Kodali. The leak shows that India between 2015-2016 purchased nuclear-reactor parts, research equipment for the Defence Research and Development Organisation, naval anti-air guided-missile defence systems and MICA missiles, with details of quantity, price and date of import. It imported largely from France, the United States, Russia and Israel.

Hyderabad stood as a port to five-product discharge, while Delhi, Mumbai, Nhava Sheva Sea and Bengaluru air cargo hosted the rest. The data post-2016 is not in the forum as the Indian CCED from November 26, 2016 stopped publishing important trade dataset that served as market intelligence for traders and small businesses.

Mr Kodali told this newspaper, “The data has information about sensitive defence installation, the code number indicates where Indian submarines are located, a few being off Mumbai. If we have enough data on this, one can use it during war time. The data shows which parts might fail more in a particular aircraft and this will address India's capability. The imports are of individual parts, not an aircraft or helicopter as a whole. 

“On the other end there might be a possibility of Indian defence importing these under different names contrary to what has been mentioned in the list. But the point to note is that every detailed information is published and if somebody wants to sabotage, they can zero down on the institution that has these parts and this may play a crucial role during war times. Also, through this data, one can easily find details of exports being made to the Indian mission in Antarctica and what recycled waste was imported back from Antarctica.

He added, “The government has been citing national security issues on publishing details of the defence procurement process with the recent Rafael deal with France. While there are legitimate concerns about not publishing details of the procurement process, transparency in government spending requires the details of the deal to be made public in the larger public interest. The government's doublespeak on transparency, national security and citizens' rights to privacy is conditional as it helps people in power.