Slashdot Mirror
India Forms Expert Group on Google Earth Images
Digital Inspiration writes "According to Yahoo News, the Indian Government, 'concerned over satellite images of its strategic installations being made available in the public domain by internet search engine Google, has decided to constitute an expert group to suggest ways to safeguard the country's interests.' Earlier, The President of India expressed concerns that terrorists could use Google Earth to plan assaults on the Indian parliament, the President's house and government offices in New Delhi, all of which show up clearly in Google Earth's photos. Google Earth has expressed its readiness to have discussions with the Government regarding the issue."
we can finally find their hidden birdie num-nums
A modicum of snuff can be quite efficacious.
Time for Indians to use Area 51 techniques, put things under the ground, problem fixed.
When will they realize that just because it's blurred out in the picture, doesn't mean the building disappeared?
Submitter, don't put something in quotes if you have paraphrased it or changed it. You completely changed what that article says. Your subject says one thing and then the content says another.
Actual Quote from Article: "Concerned over satellite images of its strategic installations being made available in the public domain by internet search engine Google, India has decided to constitute an expert group to suggest ways to safeguard the country's interests."
- what is the definition of simultanagnosia?! I've been meaning to look it up!
Call this office and tell them you will NOT be building your next call center in India if they keep trying to censor the Internet!
Office of the Development Commissioner
Kandla Special Economic Zone
Ministry of Commerce & Industry Government of India
Gandhidham-370 230
Gujarat
Phone: 02836- 52194, 52475, 52273
Fax: 02836- 52250
After hearing concerns voiced by every government on Earth, Google has agreed to only show satellite images of the oceans. This is to prevent terrorists from using sensitive data revealed by the images.
While I understand the concerns of the Indian government, I question the viability of this in the long run. Security through obscurity is at best a short term fix. If their sites can be attacked simply by knowing the above ground layout, one has to question the overall security of those installations. What's to stop a terrorist from simply getting the photos from another source? Perhaps through aerial photography? If Google agrees to help, I hope the Indian government will take the time to implement some genuine security that's not so vulnerable. Perhaps it's time for security people to experiment with the idea of peer-review?
EvilCON - Made Famous by
Google wouldn't put the same pics of US installations would it? So it should treat the Indians with the same amount of respect and consideration.
Just have them write an "X-No-Archive:" header on their lawn, specifiying the dimensions not to include.
Hey, it works for Google web search and Groups!
I don't see why just blurring out the images or putting giant black boxes over them won't work. If they really wanted to be devious, they could even switch the places around on the map (i.e. 180 degrees of rotation, then mirrored over X or Y axis), add 'fake' security measures to make the building look impenetrable, etc. Google is willing to do it, India is willing to do it, problem solved.
http://www.TheGamerNation.com/Forums
The recent threat might be the one of causes and then some one send an an email threat to blow up Parliament.
The important thing is not to stop questioning --Albert Einstein.
Considering all the ridiculous things the Shrub administration has done in its so-called "war on terruh", you'd think they'd at least strategically blur satellite photos of our military installations. Lord knows, they'd like to blur that porn you were jerking off to last night. But we all know they would never ask an American business to stop distributing its products in the name of stopping terruh. Regulating capitalism is unamerican! It's just more evidence to me that they are not really interested in protecting our troops and citizens... unless it somehow profits them or increases their control.
Imagine, if the terrists had access to....a MAP!
Will code a sig generator for food
It happens all the time! Why, just the other day I was Googling for clams. And what did I get? Listings of vaginas! Go figure!
These satellites have been up there for some time, and they're not government satellites, they're commercial satellites. This means that any terrorist with enough money could see an image of whatever they want to bomb, Google Earth or not.
I beleive it's time governments figure out a solution to the problem that doesn't involve the reversal of technology. Because it isn't going to get any better for them from here on in.
Anything that a satellite way up there in orbit can take a picture of, a remote-controlled plane with camera attached can take a photo of. Trying to stop terrorists having this information is insanity. India need to come up with security that assumes the terrorists already have this information.
Bogtha Bogtha Bogtha
google earth is just a program that aggregates a ton of information. All of this information is easily accessibly via other avenues. So just talking to google about this problem doesn't do anything at all really, if a terrorist is even slightly resourceful and can type "sattelite imagery" into google search, he can have instant access to the same pictures google earth provides. there really is no point to having these "talks".
While I haven't verified this myself, and can't provide links to confirm this, a good friend of mine says that when Google first launched Google Maps with worldwide coverage, he looked at a nearby French military base and was surprised that everything was plainly visible -- buildings, airport lanes, maybe some vehicles. When he checked again a few months later, things were blanked out. It seems someone somewhere made the appropriate phone calls.
So, Google is willing to help governments hide sensitive locations, and I would be surprised India gets a different treatment -- it's just a matter of providing the appropriate info.
Hopefully, this won't get abused (blank countries, anyone?), but so far with the U.S.A. and at least France, such blanking has been done with the right balance.
The only difference here is that India doesn't have a lobby as strong as Israel's. By US law, a satellite company cannot show high-res images of Israel.
Not that I could see Pakistan starting a nuclear exchange with India. If such an exchange were to occur and, say, 100 million were lost on both sides, India's remaining population would be .9 billion or so while Pakistan's would be in the negative numbers (IIRC, can't be bothered to look it up in the CIA world factbook.) And I'm stealing that quote more or less directly from an Indian government official who said the same thing.
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
The term "security through obscurity" is a technical term that refers specifically to keeping protocols and algorithms of a cryptographic system secret. Trying to extend that concept to mean "anything that is kept secret" is overextending its meaning. Even standard cryptographic systems rely on keeping things "obscure"--like the key, for example.
The question of whether satellite data of military installations needs to be kept secret is something that warrants a separate discussion. I think that eventually, there will be no way around making all defense and police installations secure against aerial photos, but for the time being, aerial and satellite photography may indeed may make them more vulnerable.
Security through obscurity is at best a short term fix.
Your statement suggests a superficial understanding of security. There is nothing wrong with obscurity. It is merely one of *many* tactics that should be employed *simultaneously*. Problems arise when someone relies predominately on only one tactic, whether the one tactic is obscurity or something else doesn't really matter.
On the same note, here are other solutions the Indian experts might want to consider:
On a more serious note (?) Google should definitely have a "blur API" you can use to request to blur your buildings. What about painting a huge crossed "G" over required rooftops ?
Another idea: Cover lots of useless locations with giant "blur cover" tarps to make it look like Google is hiding something important.
One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
Anyone that wants to find such a building doesn't have to resort to Google Maps. Google Maps will just print out a pretty online picuture.
I mean, the address of the White House was been well known for the past 100 years, and no city map of Washington D.C. fails to list it. It's been featured in song, the title of a film, and a trivial pursuit question for decades. I imagine that any Indian seat of power (residence or professional building) is equally as well known within the city's limits (and possibly nationwide).
Google Maps is only going to help the people that need a top-down photograph of the building and surrounding area. The only organizations which could easily profit from such information already have spy planes, satellite photography, survey maps, and other such tools. Other people just need a few dollars to buy the best street map of the city.
It's worth noting that the NSA isn't obscured in Google Maps. Why not? Because they have actual security, and understand that if a mere aerial photograph is enough to in any way increase a terrorist's chances of success, it means your security is completely inadequate.
Similarly, you'll note that there are nice high resolution maps of Area 51 available to anyone who's interested. Try using the map to get to anywhere it shows, and you'll find out why nobody has needed to try and ban the maps.
The way I see it, India has just telegraphed to the world "Hey, the security of our Parliament is completely inadequate!" They should be hoping no terrorist is reading the story.
GCHQ Quantum Insert installed. If only our tongues were made of glass, how much more careful we would be when we speak
It seems that the person who started this does n't know enough to comment on it. Security is just one that Govt. of India is interested in discussing with Google. Actual part is India has protested to Google Inc. - the multi-billion dollar internet company that owns the world's most used search engine - against the depiction of the part of Kashmir which New Delhi claims as its own as part of Pakistan. You can read full news at http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/131 3644.cms
And for those who think Indian Govt. is stupid slap yourself because you are wrong. Indian Govt. has set up an expert group to review such products(Like google earth) available in the market. They only mentioned google earth as an example. And as a part of their work, they will tackle with Google Earth as well.
Google shouldn't blur anything... or blur everything. Why would these Indian government buildings be more precious then my company's or my own home? What's next? Paying Google to blur areas as you see fit? Again, governments and companies are the only ones that can afford this. Ofcourse the intelligence community can buy these coordinates at a premium from their local Google store. Keeps them from spending time searching Google Earth from the blurs. PS: I never agreed someone to take pictures from my home, by sattelite or other means. Next time someone flies over, think twice when you notice the SA-15 Gauntlet SAM battery in the backyard! (You can buy everything in Russia, didn't you know?)
StarTrek.org Free Webmail