NEW DELHI: The Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) has issued a new set of norms including Pseudonymous or anonymous nature of the social media handle, Geopolitical analysis and VIP onboard for security and intelligence agencies to keep in mind while considering the seriousness of a bomb threat made to Indian airlines, officials said on Wednesday.
They said that other norms have been issued in view of the "evolving security challenges", especially the “emerging trend” of issuing hoax bomb threats through various social media platforms.
It is to be noted here that over the past two weeks, more than 510 domestic and international flights have received bomb threats, which later found to be hoaxes. The threats were issued mostly through anonymous handles on social media platform X. This has caused “major” operational and financial distress for the airlines.
Recently, the National Investigation Agency has positioned its cyber wing personnel with the Bomb Threat Assessment Committee (BTAC) and stationed them at each of the major airports across the country. The Committee is tasked to analyse a bomb or security threat issued against an airline, airport or any part of the civil aviation ecosystem and it decides to declare it “specific” or serious or “non-specific” or hoax.
Besides the NIA personnel, the Committee also comprises officials from the BCAS, CISF, local police, airport operator and airline officials as well as representatives of some other agencies.
The BTAC is part of the Bomb Threat Contingency Plan (BTCP) of 2014 put in place by the Union Civil Aviation Ministry to deal with bomb, sabotage and hijack threats to the Indian aviation sector, its assets and human resources.
According to the officials, the BTAC, as per the new BCAS guidelines, which were notified on October 19, will adopt a “multi-layered” approach to assess threats and determine the “credibility and seriousness” of such threats issued on social media and satisfy themselves about the “credibility” of the source of information.
As per the new protocols, the committee will establish the identity of the person or organisation by making the threat check with their credentials to see if they belong to a terrorist or proscribed outfit, ascertains the motive and specific socio-economic, and political situation within the country or around the globe that could be linked to the threat.
It will also gauge if the targeted flight has a VIP or VVIP onboard if the social media handle from which the threat has been made is verified, if the account or handle is anonymous or pseudonymous and if the same handle was used to issue multiple threats.
