Pakistan is all set to install a nationwide ‘web monitoring system’, which will monitor communications, measure and record traffic and call data on behalf of regulator Pakistan Telecom Authority (PTA).
According to Coda Story, a New York-based online news platform, Pakistan has acquired the services of Sadvine, a Canada-based network equipment company to help build a nationwide ‘web monitoring system,’ the company is expected to provide equipment for monitoring and analyzing all incoming and outgoing internet traffic from Pakistan.
The report stated that the contract worth $18.5 million, was signed between Pakistan firm Inbox Business Technologies Ltd, which is acting as a local partner for Sandvine and Pakistan Telecommunication Company for “procurement of hardware, software and provision of related services for web monitoring system.”
It further said that the ‘web monitoring system’ will use Deep Packet Inspection (DPI), According to Wired, DPI is a type of data processing that looks in detail at the contents of the data being sent, and re-routes it accordingly. It can be used for making sure that a feed of data is supplying content in the right format, or is free of viruses. Or it can be used for eavesdropping and censorship.
The PTA last year invited bids for the web monitoring system “at national level, for identifying and blocking access to any on-line content classified as unlawful under Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act 2016.”