Roll out 5G with caution, says NSAB member

Tribune News Service 
New Delhi, June 10

No US report has so far thrown up evidence against secret security breaches in Huawei’s 5G, it will nevertheless to adopt some precautions while rolling out this technology in India, says National Security Advisory board member and IIT Chennai Professor V Kamakoti.

Kamakoti suggests not only ensuring that hardware and software is from the same vendor but also conducting a broad based survey among India Inc to ascertain whether 5G technology at this juncture is at all needed. “The bigger question is are we using 4G fully,” asked Kamakoti while delivering a talk on 5G technology from the Indian perspective at the Indian Council for World Affairs here today.

Though the NSAB member suggested that India should start planning for 6G, he said full utilisation of 4G will bring several features being touted in 5G. “We must first ascertain what will we use it for,” he said, while calling for a survey among enterprises to find out if they are ready for driverless vehicles and augmented reality which 5G promises to provide. But if the need is for quick entertainment downloads and seamless video conferencing, then India should ramp up the existing 4G speeds.

The IIT Chennai professor felt vulnerabilities will always exist is a system. “Look at security from a generic perspective. We have to live with vulnerabilities. So it is not wrong to be paranoid [about security breaches],” he observed.

Kamakoti was delivering the lecture as part of the government’s plan to utilise NSAB members to spread a wider public understanding of the countries national security challenges, perspectives and policies in order to contribute to better policy making. The strength of the NSAB, headed by former diplomat P S Raghvan, was doubled from five to 10 in January by including domain experts besides the country’s security managers.