AMENDMENT TO UNIFIED ACCESS SERVICE AGREEMENT

Subject: Current Events

Context: The government on Wednesday amended the unified licence for procurement of telecom equipment.

Concept:

According to the amendments to come into effect from June 15, the licensee (operator) will only use ‘trusted products’ in its network and seek permission from ‘designated authority’ for upgrading the existing network.
The designated authority for this purpose will be the National Cyber Security Coordinator and, in this regard, the licensee will have to provide any information as and when sought by the designated authority, it said.
However, these directions will not affect ongoing annual maintenance contracts (AMC) or updates to the existing equipment already inducted in the network as on date of effect, according to the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) said in the ‘Amendment to the Unified Access Services (UAS) License Agreement (UASL) for procurement of telecommunication equipment.

National Cyber Coordination Centre (NCCC)

The NCCC was developed in 2017.
It is an operational cybersecurity and e-surveillance agency in India.
It is intended to screen communication metadata (little snippets of information hidden inside each communication) and co-ordinate the intelligence gathering activities of other agencies.
Some have expressed concern that the body could encroach on Indian citizens’ privacy and civil-liberties, given the lack of explicit privacy laws in the country.
Components of the NCCC include:

a cybercrime prevention strategy,

cybercrime investigation training and

review of outdated laws.

Indian and U.S. intelligence agencies are also working together to curb misuse of social media platforms in the virtual world by terror groups