Centre admits BSNL data breached in May, forms committee for audit of telco networks

The Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (Cert-In) reported a possible intrusion and data breach at Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) on May 20, 2024, according to union minister of communications Jyotiraditya Scindia.

“The Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) reported possible intrusion & Data Breach at BSNL on 20.05.2024. The same was analysed and found that one File Transfer Protocol (FTP) server was having data similar to the sample data shared by CERT-In,” Scindia said in a written response to an unstarred question in Lok Sabha Wednesday.

However, the equipment vendor did not report a breach into the home location register (HLR) of the telecom company’s network, “hence no service outage”, he added.

Following this, as a remedial measure to prevent such a probable breach, BSNL has taken steps, i.e., access passwords to all similar FTP servers have been changed and instructions to maintain air-gap for end Points have been issued, Scindia informed.

“Further, an Inter-Ministerial Committee (IMC) has been constituted to conduct an audit of the telecom networks and suggest remedial measures for prevention of data breaches in the telecom networks,” he said.

As per the union minister’s response to a separate question, BSNL’s net loss has narrowed from Rs 15,500 crore in 2019-20 to Rs 5,371 crore in 2023-24.

To another question on the collapse of BSNL, the union minister said the company has started earning operating profits from FY2020-21.
He stated that as of March 31, 2024, there are a total of 67,340 towers in BSNL.

BSNL has leased out a total of 12,502 towers to private telecom operators such as Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel, and Vodafone Idea, among others.

As per Scindia, BSNL has earned a total of Rs 8,348.92 crore between 2010-11 to 2023-24 by leasing out its towers.

The telecom PSU provides all types of telecom services namely telephone services on wireline, GSM mobile services including 2G, 3G, 4G and value-added services (VAS), Internet and broadband services including Fiber-to-the-Home (FTTH), Wi-Fi services, data center services, enterprise Data Services, National Long Distance services and International Long Distance services.

“The mobile and landline services provided by Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) are working satisfactorily and meeting most of the Quality of Service (QoS) parameters as per Performance Monitoring Report (PMR) of Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI),” Scindia said.