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Govt of India proposes to ban SSH (Or wants you to use 40 bit keys)

dot.gov.in

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Re: Govt of India proposes to ban SSH (Or wants you to use 40 bit keys)

#11

Post by jrockway »

ehamberg wrote: post #6

This reminds me of ~10 years ago, when downloading Linux distros, they came in “US” and “non-US” flavours. I vaguely remember this having to do with “exporting” crypto from the US. I guess something has changed since I no longer see this, but I would love if someone could shed some light on that piece of Internet history.

I don't think this is a direct result of Bernstein v. US (as that covers source code rather than executables), but it's related:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernstein_v._United_States

Re: Govt of India proposes to ban SSH (Or wants you to use 40 bit keys)

#12

Post by chris_wot »

I love the broken images at the bottom of the page.

This proposal is just one way of destroying their call centres and any Internet based transaction system they may want to develop with the outside world.

You might also want to note the following:

  14.  The ISP should block Internet sites and individual subscribers, 
  as identified by Telecom Authority.
  
  15. The Government(Licensor) reserves the right to make changes in 
  the security considerations.
Don't forget the following kicker:

  Every international gateway location and/or the ISP node with a 
  router/switch having a capacity of 2Mbps or more shall be equipped with 
  a monitoring Centre at the cost of the ISP."
These are all excellent ways of destroying their IT industry, which is currently about 7% of total GDP. No organization with critical data who have any sense will transmit data over these sort of links.

Re: Govt of India proposes to ban SSH (Or wants you to use 40 bit keys)

#14

Post by arihant »

I think this is only for international gateways using foreign satellites physically located within the country. No? Does this effect users of, say, Airtel? Didn't Airtel use Singtel's gateway (located outside India)?

And this does not look like a proposal, more like a TOC for establishing a gateway.

Nevertheless, a terrible thing.

EDIT: Nope, it is for everyone - It is same clause in Cable Landing Stations for ISPs using offshore Gateways. See here - http://www.dot.gov.in/isp/landing_station.doc

Now I wonder why aren't ISPs already blocking. The documents don't look old, they are still linked on their site.

EDIT 2: Document is too old. Doesn't hold.

Re: Govt of India proposes to ban SSH (Or wants you to use 40 bit keys)

#15

Post by billybob »

danmaz74 wrote: post #3

I wonder how this could impact the Indian IT outsourcing industry. Will customers be happy to have the Indian government being able to peek into everything they do from India?

This may be one of the strongest arguments for stopping this. US companies will certainly not want their business to be compromised by competitors because of this rule.

Re: Govt of India proposes to ban SSH (Or wants you to use 40 bit keys)

#16

Post by ibotty »

ehamberg wrote: post #6

This reminds me of ~10 years ago, when downloading Linux distros, they came in “US” and “non-US” flavours. I vaguely remember this having to do with “exporting” crypto from the US. I guess something has changed since I no longer see this, but I would love if someone could shed some light on that piece of Internet history.

something changed, indeed. djb vs. usa: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernstein_v._United_States

Re: Govt of India proposes to ban SSH (Or wants you to use 40 bit keys)

#20

Post by sgt »

Surprisingly many of the indian IT workers (outsourced) I am in touch with support the increasing limitations of freedom in India.

I am not sure why, maybe they are just brainwashed or simply not used to having as many rights as people in the western world are accustomed to. In any case, terrorism is a real threat in India and I suspect they are all a bit touchy.

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