No line of control for Indo-Pak hotline

India and Pakistan are now good neighbours with a bad hotline. When the two sides talk, as Brahm Chellani of the Centre for Policy Research warns, a third country can listen to the conversation. "The hotline is not secure," the doctor confides.

The talk-time is now restricted to once a week, on Tuesdays, when the two director generals of military operations (DGMOs) exchange words for a stipulated duration. Despite Business Standard's repeated requests to the Indian DGMO's office to comment on the so-called livewire line, there was no response.

However, old Signals hand Brig. PK Ghosh, now the head of surveillance and simulation, Mahindra Defence Systems, has obliged with a first-hand account of how the hotline really works.

At the DGMOs office, there is a totally sealed black box. A wire runs from one end of the box, and the other end has a channel for conversation, much like the old-fashioned black telephone boxes. When the two parties talk, analog data is converted digitally in this box, which then scrambles the data by an algorithm.

The algorithmic data now travels to the other side (say, Pakistani), and is unscrambled in their black (or green, eh?) box using a similar algorithm. The reverse sets in. The unscrambled data is assembled digitally and then converted back to its analog form, so that the Pakistani DGMO can say 'Hello ', that is, if it doesn't go against the grain. In telecommunication parlance, this analog to digital conversion is commonly called A to D conversion, controlled by "top secret" algorithms.

Ghosh points out, "Unless you have your own algorithm cleared by the Security Advisory Group (SAG) in Delhi, the device cannot be used." The problem, however, lies in how to use a device where neither India's nor Pakistan's algorithms are compromised.

But most people or corporates who provide hi-end algorithmic solutions, are essentially Russians, Israelis, Indians and Chinese, based out of the US. "The algorithm is highly mathematical and is generally developed by the US-based companies," adds Ghosh.

In a nutshell, the keys to the hotline, or the solution to talk-ability, is provided by a third party, in spite of checks and balances and a high-level of scrutiny by the SAG. That is where the danger lies.

Sources rattle out instances from the past where big brother was caught snooping in on the conversation between the two countries. Yet another problem dogging the hotline is the key to encryption.

While Pakistan has reason to believe it should have control over the encrypted software (customised and provided by a third party), India feels otherwise, informs Chellani. The war rages on. Good neighbours, huh?

  

Hotline for dummies

• When the first party talks, his voice is in analog form. This analog data is first converted into digital form.
  
• The digital data is scrambled by an algorithm within the box.
  
• Algorithmic data travels to the other side.
  
• It is then converted into digital data.
  
• The digital data is broken down into analog form so that the second party can hear.