Security alert for lab secrets

KOLKATA: Science laboratories in the city are vulnerable to information pilferage and terrorist attacks and needed to beef up security.
A recent direction from the IB in this regard has sent scientists into a tizzy. Many of the CSIR, ICMR and defence laboratories are enhancing security on their campus.
The directive comes after Pakistani nuclear scientist A.Q.Khan was charged with passing out privileged information.
The incident prompted Indian intelligence agencies to review the condition in laboratories involved in confidential research work. “Wars would now be fought on intellectual resources and science, not so much by arms and ammunition.
With the research market becoming global and highly competitive, a casual lapse can have disastrous repercussions,� said a scientist at a CSIR lab.
Intelligence reports also claimed that findings of any serious research work must be kept secret as there were many “agents� working in the country for research organisations in the West.
“The ICMR and CSIR have issued strict orders to keep the findings secret till they are through with the patents. Otherwise, there is every possibility that it will be reproduced in a laboratory in some other part of the world and patented even faster,� said a senior official at an ICMR lab.
All the labs are now trying to develop a foolproof system of security. Some have introduced entry systems monitored by computers. Every visitor is checked and the data stored in the computer. Nobody will be allowed entry without producing a proof of identity. The nature of identification is also to be stored in the computer for future verification.
Some of the laboratories were also targets of terrorist groups, intelligence reports said. A similar warning was issued about a year ago for defence laboratories and security was stepped up. The current warning covers all the CSIR labs in the city.
“Some of the labs have been declared protected places and there is serious consideration about elevating others to the same status,� said an intelligence official.