Aware of the pitfalls of vulnerabilities in its cyberspace following Snowden reports and countless attacks by Chinese hackers on key government websites, Centre has taken a vital step towards having its own operating system (OS) with which it plans to replace all other OSs, including the most popular Microsoft Windows in future.

A highly improved version of BOSS (Bharat Operating System Solutions) developed by C-DAC (Centre for Development of Advanced Computing) will be unveiled and discussed in an internal meeting in union home ministry in this week.

It has successfully tested fending itself from all kinds of attacks during the past three months of trial. Several government agencies including the Army intelligence were given the task to attack it to test its vulnerability status but they all failed to break it.

“It answers government’s need have a fully secure network. Fresh codes unique to the system have been written for the OS. Its source code that makes it safe and secure will have to be guarded at all cost,” sources said.

The Snowden reports revealed that India was the most scrutinised nation by the US intelligence agencies. While other countries like China started carrying out R&D on news forms of attacks like the Smart dust, Nano technologies and Al, India still lags behind by far.

However, the new OS can help India take a substantial step to prepare in this direction as will be able to take care of both the individual computer as well as the networking.

Though the plan to have its own operating system has been the scheme of the things of the government for a past few years, it has been unable to take off due to lack of proactive and systematic approach and funding. The development could not go beyond BOSS which besides being insecure is also not as versatile, adaptable and user friendly as Microsoft Windows.

The new Linux based OS is totally indigenous and has been developed with the help of Gujarat Technical University, DRDO and private computer geeks has more or less all the features and ease of Microsoft Windows, sources said.

The OS is expected to be handed over to department of electronics and information technology (DEITY) to further smooth rough edges and ready it for the use of government ministries.

Later, the government can collaborate with indigenous industry giants to develop it further and create an open source OS along with other hardware and network systems that would encourage other entities and individuals to shift to it from other OS like Windows, Macintosh, BlackBerry RIM etc., sources added.

The Snowden reports revealed that India was the most scrutinised nation by the US intelligence agencies. While other countries like China started carrying out R&D on news forms of attacks like the Smart dust, Nano technologies and Al, India still lags behind by far.

However, the new OS can help India take a substantial step to prepare in this direction as will be able to take care of both the individual computer as well as the networking.