Mid-day news reports that Mumbai Internet access is under heavy surveillance and supervision:

Vijay Mukhi, President of the Foundation for Information Security and Technology says, “The terrorists know that if they use machines at home, they can be caught. Cybercafes therefore give them anonymity.”

“The police needs to install programs that will capture every key stroke at regular interval screen shots, which will be sent back to a server that will log all the data.

The police can then keep track of all communication between terrorists no matter, which part of the world they operate from.This is the only way to patrol the net and this is how the police informer is going to look in the e-age,” added Mukhi.

Seems like a good theory, but as we all know the “no matter which part of the world” and “every key stroke” phrases are absolutes. Absolutes and security rarely go well together.

All cyber cafes in the city will now need a police license to keep their business going. All cafes need to register at the police headquarters and provide details on the number of computers installed, type of computers and technical details like the IP address of each machine.

They will have some trouble when they realize how IP addresses are increasingly dynamic and spoofed.

I wonder how much of this type of cafe clampdown, if successful, will push anonymous network seekers onto the weaker wireless signals in residential neighborhoods.

Will police require home users to use a grade of security to prevent intrusion, and/or to report the number of computers, type, etc. when they run wireless networks? Will home users be held liable for weak security like WEP, or the providers, or even the manufacturers? The new Snoop law in England, if it survives public concern, may help provide answers.