Internet Alert

As images of strategic locations become available on the web, the Government needs a better defence in this information warfare

IT is hyped as a 3-D interface with Earth in three simple steps. Log on to www.earth.google.com, type in an address or a Zip code and you zoom in on high-resolution images of the place-be it a park in Paris or the Rashtrapati Bhavan in Delhi. There lies the problem. The resident of the latter, President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, has sounded the Google alert. The mapping programme can provide crucial information not only to the teenager browsing at home but also to the Net-savvy terrorist.

PICTURE SPEAK

Users can view 3-D images of towns and streets. They can study real estate or explore the site of Rashtrapati Bhavan

Both can get highly detailed images of the Parliament building and even some clear shots of Indian defence establishments. "Developing countries, which are already in danger of terrorist attacks, have been singularly chosen," declared the President while delivering the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Memorial Lecture at the National Police Academy in Hyderabad last week. Ironically, it is not very far from the National Remote Sensing Agency and the Advances Data Research Institute where satellite imagery is processed for civilian and military purposes. Kalam's anxiety is not unfounded. As the scientist who guided India's missile programme, he is aware of the advantages of satellite images and the possibility of their abuse. There should be new legislation, he said, to let governments regulate web content and restrain the display of sensitive information in the public domain.

Google, meanwhile, says all this fuss is about nothing. Explains spokesperson Debbie Frost: "The information provided in Google Earth is available to anyone who flies above or drives by a piece of property. We will be happy to talk to Indian authorities about any worries that they may have." But concerns have been raised elsewhere too. South Korea, the Netherlands and Thailand have complained that strategically important locations have been made public on the website. Much to the distress of the Korean neighbours, the Presidential Blue House in Seoul and the nuclear research centre at Yongbyon, North Korea, figure prominently on Google Earth even as most US government locations are blocked.

The website, which was launched in June this year, provides a limited free service and a paid service-$400 (Rs 18,000) for a year-that allows users to see major geographical features, towns and streets, study real estate and even analyse defence and intelligence, thanks to its visualisation of "assets and personnel in the field". Google is not the only one in the fray. Several other websites, including Microsoft TerraServer and National Geographic MapMachine, offer satellite images.

In India, security agencies need to be alive to new technologies that could pose a threat to national security. Even as archaic laws prohibit photography in airports, there are little restrictions on foreign satellites from taking images of strategic locations. However, military analysts are divided on whether Google Earth poses a security threat. "Satellite pictures are available for a price these days," says C. Uday Bhaskar, deputy director, Institute of Defence Studies and Analyses, Delhi. But others point out that the images can be sifted and studied to analyse troop movements. Says Secretary of the Department of Science and Technology V.S. Ramamoorthy: "What is a matter of concern is the high resolution of the images." Even as the scientist-President asks the security agencies to be tech-savvy, he points out that an intelligent analysis of the same data in Google Earth can give information on terrorist groups.

When battles are being planned on laptops, India has to fall back on its famed IT know-how to come up with a better defence.

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