NTRO to soon have satellite monitoring capability

New Delhi, May 27 (UNI) Having established its global credentials as a computer software power, India seems set on the path of emulating the security-intelligence appratus of world's only super power- the United States.

While National Security Agency (NSA) of the U S is credited with listening to virtually every communication across the world, National Technical Research Orgnisation (NTRO) of India will be shortly acquiring the capability of satellite monitoring, intelligence sources said.

Set up three years ago to assist the national security apparatus by generating technical intelligence, NTRO is already capable of monitoring global satellite mobile(GSM) and high frequency (HF) communication.

With different government agencies protecting their turf in respect of intelligence gathering, NTRO is understood to have been tasked to assist various financial and economic intelligence agencies in honing their skills. A coordinated sharing and response mechanism can go a long way in playing a significant role in protecting national security, the sources added.

Central Economic Intelligence Bureau, Directorate of Revenue Intelligence, Enforcement Directorate and Narcotics Control Bureau are some of the government agencies which are always in need of technical intelligence to accomplish varities of tasks entrusted to them.

NTRO is already in the process of planning a modern and secure multi-service commmunication network. When operational, the network will enable the organisation to secure voice, data, video and fax communication among user agencies of the government.

Responsible for monitoring and intercepting terrestrial and satellite-based communication, services of NTRO can also be utilised in investigating cyber crimes and in cyber forensic, the sources said.

NTRO also has the capability in recovery of data, monitoring of internet service provider as also in securing database management, data mining and data warehousing. The organisation has the talent to providing consultancy on information security policy to various agencies of the government. It is also cabable of intrusive or defensive operations.

Significantly, the organisation can provide critical help in monitoring flow of funds through internet, the sources said, adding it could be useful in curbing flow of slush funds meant for terrorist activities and causing other types of internal disturbances in the country.

NTRO also has first rate encryption technology and devised various methods to secure intra and inter-communications among various governmment agencies, including economic and financial. All such agencies urgently require a secure communication network of their own and their need to communicate with other national agencies tasked with security and intelligence operations in the larger national security matrix.

Scientists of the organisation are trained to penetate suspect computers, extract infomation and map clandestine webseites in the cyber world.

During a recent meeting of various economic intelliegence-gathering agencies, one of the agencies underlined the need for having a national database which could be used by all concerned agencies.

Another agency underlined the need to acquire imageries of crop cultivations to enable it identify sources of raw materials which went into making of different types of narcotics.

One official sought high-resolution satellite imageries and also NTRO's cooperation in cyber monitoring without alerting targets during the meeting, the sources said.

With the seedling of what could emerge as a counterpart of the United States' NSA having started sprouting, NTRO, given the right leadership and adequate funds in the coming years, has the potential to enter the big league in generating technical intelligence for use by experts and strategists.

UNI