Apple, Nokia, And Others May Have Given Indian Government Backdoor Access To Cell Phone Data

by The Ology Team .

On Jan 08, 2012

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On January 6th, a group of Indian hackers known as the Lords of Dharamraja claimed to have hacked into Indian Military Intelligence servers, and they have since leaked a series of confidential documents that suggest RIM, Nokia, Apple, and possibly other cell phone manufacturers may have colluded with the Indian government on a program called RINOA (RIM, NOkia, and Apple) SUR. The RINOA SUR program apparently gave the Indian government backdoor access to those cell phone security networks in exchange for Indian market presence. 

According to the documents, the RINOA SUR program was used to access communications by the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC) "which are of great value to Indian industry." The USCC is a government body tasked with montioring and reporting on national security implications related to bilateral trade agreements with China. The leaked memos seem to contain various startegy discussions for economic negotiations with China. 

While the Indian government has yet to confirm or deny the accuracy of the documents or the RINOA SUR program, if these allegations are correct, it says some disturbing things about our cellphone network security.  It can't be great for U.S. - India relations when one government is snooping on the private communiques of the other (though I would be surprised if that snooping didn't go both ways). Also, trading network access for market presence is a dangerous game, and since RIM, Nokia, and Apple customers in India were not told that their information would be subject to government surveillance, those companies will have to answer for their shady actions. You also have to wonder: if these companies sold out their security for an economic advantage in India, what other deals have they made?

Someone fetch me my tinfoil hat.

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