IT workers in India still have access to emergency network

Broadnet.Photo: Gorm Kallestad / NTB scanpix

IT workers in India continue to have access to parts of the emergency network, seven weeks after the PST started an investigation of Broadnet for violation of the security law.

Broadnet, which supplies some of the telephone lines used in the emergency network, terminated 120 employees when the Indian subcontractor Tech Mahindra took over the operation a year and a half ago.

For 14 months, the company’s employees have had full access to the emergency network, but without the necessary permit or security clearance.

Lack of competence here at home is making it so that Broadnet doesn’t have the ability to bring all of the operations back to Norway until the autumn, reports NRK.

– The most important thing is that we have closed the discrepancy, says Director Torbjørn Krøvel in Broadnet. He says they have started hiring people in Norway and stresses that Broadnet is not in violation of the law.

With regards to the question about IT workers in India still having access to turn off the emergency network, the response from Director Cecilie Daae in the Directorate for Emergency Communication (DNK) is that a theoretical possibility exists.

– I believe that it is essentially concluded that everyone who works with the emergency network has a security clearance, said Daae.

The Standing Committee on Scrutiny in Parliament stated earlier in March that it is not appropriate to open the case for inspection before PST has completed its investigation.

 

Source: NTB scanpix / Norway Today