KARACHI: The government has acquired the services of a controversial Canadian-based company to help build a "web monitoring system" across the country, according to a New York-based publication, Coda Story.
The Coda report said Sandvine is expected to provide equipment to monitor and analyze all incoming and outgoing Internet traffic from Pakistan.
In May, reports emerged that the Pakistan Telecommunications Authority (PTA) had ordered the telecommunications industry to implement an "adequate technical solution" to monitor, analyze and curb "gray traffic", which includes Voice over Protocol Internet and Virtual Private Networks.
Parliamentary Affairs Minister Azam Khan Swati told the Senate earlier that the PTA had asked Inbox Business Technologies and Sandvine Inc to provide equipment to monitor gray traffic. At the same time, he argued that the PTA was not involved with any of the companies and that no public funds had been spent on the project.
Outsourcing web monitoring to Sandvine raises concerns
However, according to the Coda report, a March 2018 tender available on the PTA website invited to submit offers for the web monitoring system (WMS) "nationwide, to identify and block access to any content on line classified as illegal under Electronic Prevention Crime Act 2016 ".
By sharing details of the agreement, the report says that the WMS contract is worth $ 18.5 million and is dated December 12, 2018. The web monitoring system will use deep packet inspection (DPI) to monitor communications, measure and record traffic and call data on behalf of the PTA.
The contract, he adds, was signed by several parties, including the signature of Pakistan Inbox Business Technologies Ltd, which acts as a local partner of Sandvine and Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL) for the “acquisition of hardware, software and supply of related products services for the web monitoring system. "
The new system is the result of a controversial 2010 law that orders the monitoring and blocking of any traffic to and from Pakistan.
The report notes that according to a source working in Inbox Business Technologies, which appears to be licensed to install the Sandvine equipment, the WMS system is not yet operational.
When asked if the PTA had hired the services of Sandvine or Inbox Business Technologies, Coda was told that the authority was not in "any agreement or contract with Inbox or Sandvine at present or in the past".
However, the regulator said these companies "may have been" providing technology to the country's telecommunications industry.
The report highlights Sandvine's role in web monitoring in Pakistan. In 2012, when the government first requested proposals for the construction of an internet filtering system, Sandvine was one of the companies that responded to human rights concerns and said it would not bid for the project.
A tender notice available on the PTCL website confirmed that Sandvine was serving in Pakistan since at least 2016, he adds.
Sandvine, according to the report, was criticized last year after an investigation by the Canadian-based Citizen Lab revealed that its IPR was being used in Turkey, Egypt and Syria to redirect users to download legitimate programs. " included with spyware. "
The Citizen Lab also discovered that Sandvine's IPR team was being used to "block political, journalistic and human rights content," he adds.
Despite criticism, the PTA maintains that gray traffic is a crime and its efforts to monitor it through a technical solution are in accordance with the law and with the joint efforts of all interested parties.
Posted on Dawn, October 25, 2019
Source: https://www.dawn.com/news/1512784/govt-working-with-controversial-firm-to-monitor-internet-traffic-report