[Fsf-friends] Re: BSNL should find a place in "Hall of Shame"

[CK Raju, Thrissur]

Dear Sir,
I had been monitoring the changeover plans of sancharnet email services to
bsnl.in ever since it was announced publicly by your MD. From this request,
it appears that your department is not fully aware of the implications for
national security that such a migration poses. I had an initial debate when
I had announced on the FSF-Friends mailing lists that bsnl.in mail server is
on Microsoft platform with some learned professors arguing that my
methodology to arrive at the conclusion were not technically correct. It was
then I got a copy of your presentation, which clarified the issues to
members in the Free Software Foundation's mailing list.

I hope you would appreciate that the President of India had earlier said
that "Its unfortunate that we Indians believe in proprietary solutions. A
small shift in business solutions to proprietary can have devastating
effects on our society.." A large number of newspapers had carried the
story. One such article is here
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/cms.dll/html/uncomp/articleshow?msid=47799819

If you watch carefully, the article continues  "..He said that during a
discussion with Microsoft CEO Bill Gates at the Rashtrapati Bhavan a few
months ago, he had discussed the issue of software security and the need to
look for open source codes. 'Our discussions became difficult since our
views were different,' Kalam said. ..".

This is precisely our sore point - that a public sector undertaking has been
given a different view about "security" by Microsoft and that you are
(innocently, I should now say) executing the project, which goes against
"national security" - going by President's own words. A service is never
secure, unless the freedom to *examine* or *amend* the code is with us (in
this case, with BSNL). You would also appreciate that as per IT Act 2000,
there cannot be public systems that have malignant code inside - which means
every public system will qualify only if this certification is there. IT Act
says that such systems should not cause leakage of sensitive information
relating to "privileges of parliament, trade, or other sensitive
information" - which can only be ensured if public systems are *only* on
Free Software. By taking what is legally now considered as a retrograde
step, BSNL is now qualifying to be prosecuted under the aforementioned act.

Its my sincere hope that you would do your best to redo the damage that will
be caused to the nation by
(1) taking its premier email services away from Microsoft and have it
commissioned on Free Software platforms,
(2) initiating an audit in every operational department under your control
to ensure that proprietary solutions are phased out, and
(3) thus, showing the world that BSNL cares for the concerns of the
citizens.


Should you have any difficulty in technical aspects, we have a great bunch
of techies here who would be at your call to render service which are
ethical and just.

Regards and best wishes,
CK Raju
On 3/9/07, G Srinivas <gsrinivas at bsnl.co.in> wrote:
>
>  Dear Raju,
>
> Can u please throw more light on your statement.
>
>
>
> Regards,
>
> G. SRINIVAS
>
> DGM(Dotsoft&Comp)
>
> HYDERABAD, BSNL
>
> 040 -23236153(O)
>   ------------------------------
>
> *From:* anilankv at gmail.com [mailto:anilankv at gmail.com] *On Behalf Of *Anilkumar
> K V
> *Sent:* 06 March 2007 17:49
> *To:* gsrinivas at bsnl.co.in
> *Subject:* BSNL should find a place in "Hall of Shame"
>
>
>
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> From: *CK Raju, Thrissur* <ck.thrissur at gmail.com>
>
> Friends,
>
> The mail server at http://mail.bsnl.in has now been confirmed to be on M$
> platform. Here's the link.
>
> http://egovstandards.gov.in/states_repositories/andhra-pradesh/brainstroming_sessions/andhra-pradesh/network-information-security-standards/egsworkshopfile.2006-12-13.1596939909/at_download/file
>
> BSNL should find a prominent place now in our "Hall of Shame".
>
> And the person associate with this *project* is
> G Srinivas ITS, DGM(Dotsoft & Computers), BSNL AP
> Email : gsrinivas at bsnl.co.in
>
> What a terrible shame ???
>
> CK Raju
>