Mumbai: Spy network using illegal VoIP exchange to report Indian Army’s movement in J&K busted,
In a joint operation, Military Intelligence and Mumbai Crime Branch busted a telephone exchange racket in Chembur area today from where calls were made to transfer sensitive information related to the movement of Defence and Military personnel in Jammu & Kashmir. The spy network was attempting to gather information about the Indian defence in Ladakh, using illegal Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) exchange In the operation, one accused has been arrested and an investigation is underway to ascertain the identity of other individuals involved in the network and locations of other similar exchanges and according to IANS, more arrests are likely in the next few days. Chinese SIM boxes, 191 SIM cards and connectors recovered During the bust, three functional Chinese SIM boxes and one standby sim box along with 191 SIM cards, laptop modem; antennas; batteries and connectors were recovered. The exchanges convert international voice calls originating from Pakistan into local GSM calls by using the Chinese SIM Boxes fitted with GSM SIM cards of local cellular service providers. As per the reports, these SIM boxes also used dynamic IMEI system, which made them difficult to be tracked. Pakistan's ISI under scanner Voice over Internet Protocol is a technology which allows delivery of voice communications and multimedia sessions over Internet Protocol (IP) networks, such as the broadband Internet instead of a regular phone line. As per the reports, when tension between India and China escalated this month defence officials reported that they had received calls from suspicious numbers where a caller posing as an Indian intelligence officer was seeking information related to the Ladakh and other important defence installations. The investigating agencies are suspecting the role of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and it has been found that calls incoming from Pakistan were routed to local numbers and were used to extract information from defence persons.
