Network monitoring and internet traffic surveillance system: Issues and challenges in India

Abstract

NETRA or Network Traffic Analysis is an Internet traffic surveillance system developed by the Indian Government. It has been designed by various intelligence agencies of India. The conceptualization, monitoring & development have been done by a group consisting of the Centre for Artificial Intelligence and Robotics, Defense Research & Development Organization and National Technical Research Organization. The prime purpose of this application is to analyze the internet traffic and draw inferences for various suspected activities in the country. But the design scheme and implementation level analysis of the system shows few weaknesses like limited memory options, limited channels for monitoring, pre-set filters, ignoring big data demands, security concerns, social values breach and ignoring ethical issues. These can be covered through alternate options which can improve the existing system. The paper reviews the architectural framework and existing scheme of NETRA system and suggests improvements for the weak areas. The existing framework of NETRA system has been compared to similar international level surveillance systems like Dish Fire, Prism and Echelon. The similarity and differences amongst these systems are identified and recommendations are provided based on them. The analysis of surveillance system will help in developing several other mini spy-cum-monitoring models which can be further customized for various applications and communication channels in India.