TRAI website down for making email IDs public -Governance Now

TRAI website down for making email IDs public

Threatening privacy of Indian internet users, TRAI releases the list of email IDs from which it received responses regarding net neutrality

GN Bureau | April 28, 2015

#net neutrality #net neutrality in india #net neutrality trai #net neutrality flipkart #flipkart #narendra modi #start ups net neutrality

At a time when every Indian is busy saving the internet, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India’s (TRAI) latest move has made them the victims of the same internet. TRAI has revealed the email IDs and personal details of all those people who gave their feedback and comments on the issue of net neutrality, risking their privacy in a big way. This made all the respondents' email IDs potentially available to every spammer. Seriously, what was TRAI thinking?

The authority soon met its nemesis. TRAI’s website was allegedly hacked on Monday by a group called ‘AnonOpsIndia’. The group claimed that it has taken down the website with a DDOS (Distributed Denial of Service) attack.

Check what the group tweeted:

We are just bunch of kids trolling "brilliant" minds at #TRAI who have no clue how to handle such situation. Sorry India, you deserve better
— AnonOpsIndia (@opindia_revenge) April 27, 2015

Some of you have criticized us today for taking down #TRAI but that's the way we roll. #TRAI, expect us! We are watching your every move!
— AnonOpsIndia (@opindia_revenge) April 27, 2015

But is hacking the correct solution to respond to this situation?

The responses, which TRAI has published, have been categorised into ‘Comments from Service Providers’, ‘Comments from Service Provider Associations’ and ‘Comments from other stakeholders’. The responses from ‘other stakeholders’, namely the general public has been sorted datewise for ‘easy access’. Sure, it will be an easy access for a host of spammers!

Though some argue that TRAI disclosed the name of people in the name of ‘transparency’, the authority is not that naïve to make such a major blunder. It could have very well masked the email IDs of people and could have avoided risking their privacy.

Meanwhile, TRAI has denied any hacking claims and said that the site was down because of ‘technical snags’. The alleged hacking occurred only few hours after the regulatory body put out all the responses on its consultation paper on net neutrality along with the email addresses of over 10 lakh people who had written to the organisation.

Read the information put out by TRAI here

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