Customer data, submarine cables to be key telco infra

This will subject telecoms to greater disclosures as nations increase support for cyber warfare

- Jatin Grover

In September, US officials unearthed Salt Typhoon, a Chinese group that had quietly broken into routers and switches at major telcos like AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile, snooping into calls and exfiltrating sensitive data of millions of users.

Given the rising tide of attacks on telecom and computer networks worldwide, India is taking no chances.

The government is set to tag customer databases, routing systems, customer relationship management systems, submarine cable line equipment, and satellite services tools as critical telecom infrastructure or CTI, two people aware of the plans said. This would subject them to greater disclosures and compel them to prepare better as nation states put their weight behind cyber warfare.

"CTI was introduced under the Telecom Act, 2023, but what constitutes CTI is undefined. The government would first notify a few elements from the mobile services, satellites, submarine cable infrastructure, and internet services as CTI. A committee will review the same every six months based on the feedback," one of the two officials said on the condition of anonymity.