SHADY NET PROVIDERS POSE security threat on DoT radar

Tightening the noose on illegal internet usage, officials from the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) along with the Thane (rural) police have busted three illegal ISP’s in the region who were reportedly operating sans mandated licenses.

While a FIR under the relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code and Maharashtra Telegraph Act has been registered at the Navghar police station in Bhayandar against the operator of Star Net Internet Broad Band, two other ISP’s in Mira Road were under the scanner of investigations. It should be noted a team comprising DoT officials and personnel from the Thane (rural) police led by ASP- Atul Kulkarni had swooped down on three ISP establishments in the twincity on June 25.

The officials sealed the premises and seized registers, bill-books and other edata to verify the authenticity and legality of their operations. After confirmation, the DoT registered an offence against the illegally operating ISP in Bhayandar on Saturday. However, no arrests have been made so far. Neither any type of weblog of their customer base was maintained nor did they have any regulatory and monitoring facility available with them, which is in sharp contrast to the mandated guidelines laid down by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) officials said.

“Apart from causing huge revenue losses to the government exchequer, such unscrupulous providers were also posing a serious threat to the security of the country.” said Hemant Sharma of NGO Sahayak which has been on the forefront in drawing the attention of the Chief Vigilance Commissioner, Prime Minister's Office and other concerned agencies towards the issue for the past couple of years. It has emerged that unrecognized operators buy bandwidth from major telecom operators to set-up small scale ISP’s, sans checks and measures including- license issued by government, mandatory regulatory guideline, monitoring facility, logs and records of searches made by users. Dozens of illegally operating ISP’s in the region are on DoT Radar.

Officials sealed the premises and seized registers, bill-books and other e-data to verify the authenticity and legality of their operations. After confirmation, the DoT registered an offence against the illegally operating ISP in Bhayandar