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back to article India's centralised snooping system facing big delays

After recent revelations about governments snooping on their own citizens, it's nice to know that not every such effort is going smoothly, as India’s much criticised NSA-style Centralised Monitoring System (CMS) is facing big delays after it emerged that the project is still missing the vital software which will allow analysts …

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  1. Chairo
    Meh

    Sounds familiar

    the system currently lacks the search algorithms needed to identify specific documents, meaning that as it stands operatives would have to search every email in the CMS to find the one they’re looking for

    Are they running Outlook?

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    1. Anonymous Coward
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      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Sounds familiar

      Lotus Notes.

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  2. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

    what do you expect

    If you outsource it to ......

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    1. Anonymous Coward
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      Thumb Up

      Re: what do you expect

      Centralised Monitoring System (CMS) is facing big delays after it emerged that the project is still missing the vital software which will allow analysts to search comms data.

      A bunch of people who said 'yes' when asked to supply various requirements but didn't either quite understand what it was they were asked to supply, or indeed that they were supposed to supply it ...............

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    2. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: what do you expect

      The one who laughs last has the best laughs

      It is an indication of what happens when University education is "Industry Driven". As any one who has had the unfortunate task to interview products of their educational system it produces tradesmen with no solid foundation to their knowledge. Finite state machine? That is less than 30% who have heard about it, and when you ask the 30% who have how to code one they start talking rubbish. Functional programming? You gotta be kidding. And so on.

      Coming back to the lack of algorithms, etc - analysis of data at this scale is still science, not tradesmanship. The reason why Western Europe, USA, Russia, etc can have the rather dubious pride of spying successfully on their cittizens wholesale is decent fundamental education in probability, stats and computer science. This however will not last. If the tendency to degenerate it into tradesmanship to fit "industry needs" continues we will not be any better in a decade or so. Just as described here: http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/ThePerilsofJavaSchools.html

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  3. T. F. M. Reader

    Here is a solution

    for Brits, Merkins, and others who are uncomfortable with the scope of surveillance: just outsource NSA and their ilk. Good for the budget, too.

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  4. John Smith 19 Gold badge
    Happy

    Doesn't India have the highest number of highest qualified programmers in the world?

    Apparently they don't.

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  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    "...still missing the vital software..."

    They've got form here. Some years ago the Indian government forked out over the odds for a new air traffic control system, but only bought the hardware, intending have the software written to save a few quid. Unsurprisingly that didn't pan out, and the (now probably obsolete) kit occupies a corner of a hanger at Indira Gandhi International.

    If ever there was a government with an instinct for monitoring everything that moves, it's India's. Six or seven years ago Shimla's police department naively suggested connecting a webcam from every hotel room in the city (a lot of rooms as its a popular summer destination and especially popular with honeymooners) to a central police control room to give police an advantage in controlling theft from hotels. Or so they said. A quick flick through the various 'Tube' sites suggests plenty of the rooms are covered by webcams, but not by the police.

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  6. Ye Gads

    Too many jokes...

    Though it just goes to show, you should always develop with a sensible dataset.

    I can just see the developers working with a flat-file of 2500 intercepts and saying "yup, the system works just fine..."

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  7. Bluenose

    And not a mention of Edward Snowden!

    Just proves my point in a post the other day, every one with a few million to spare is trying to build a system that spies on everyone including their own citizens.

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  8. JaitcH
    FAIL

    I suspect the problems are more fundamental than that ...

    as anyone who has ever tried making landline calls in India will attest to.

    I worked in India for around seven months, installing data communication systems, and we eventually ended up using unlicenced Single Sideband HF eequipment operating in their military bands. These were far more reliable than telephones.

    They never did catch on!

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  9. Anomalous Cowshed

    Oh no we cannot get our act together!

    Top Secret memo! Not to be disclosed to ANYONE EXCEPT THE PRESS:

    We cannot get our act together. Really, we are thick as planks. We cannot even afford a decent database. We're still using an abacus to perform all calculations. Our attempts to spy on our own citizens are hopelessly hampered by inadequate technology: we didn't even get a budget allocation to buy a notepad last year to record conversations by hand. And as for a pen, that's entirely out of the question. But we're trying hard. We are so evil, but so hopeless...don't worry.

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  10. Terry Cloth
    Unhappy

    Subhead: Central Monitoring System lacks algorithms, database and data

    I suspect the NSA will be able to help out with that last.

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