Question : MoU on Cyber Security

Will the Minister of Electronics & Information Technology be pleased to state:-

(a) whether India and USA have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on cooperation in the field of cyber security and the MoU intends to promote closer cooperation and the exchange of information pertaining to the cyber security;

(b) if so, the details thereof;

(c) the extent to which the aforesaid MoU likely to help achieve the mutual benefits;

(d) whether India and United States had also signed an MoU to promote a closer cooperation and timely exchange of information between the organizations of their respective Governments responsible for Cyber Security; and

(e) if so, the details thereof and the success achieved by both the countries to resolve the cyber security related issues?

(a), (b) and (c): India and the US signed a Framework for the US-India Cyber Relationship on 30 August 2016 in New Delhi.

India and the United States have agreed to cooperate in the following main areas:

1. Sharing of threat related information
2. Best practices, developing Joint Mechanism to promote cooperation in the field of R&D, Standards & Testing, Capacity Building and Cybercrime.
3. Strengthening critical internet infrastructure in India.

This aforesaid Framework Agreement will be mutually beneficial with enhanced cooperation between Law Enforcement Agencies to combat cyber crime. Cooperation on Capacity building and skills development, joint R&D, cyber security standards and security testing including accreditation process, cyber security products development can benefit us significantly by increasing the security of our cyberspace and protection of internet users.







(d) and (e): In pursuance of above mentioned framework agreement, a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) and the United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US-CERT), Department of Homeland Security, Government of United States of America (USA) to promote cooperation in the field of Cyber Security was signed by Secretary, Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology (MeitY) and United States Ambassador to India on 11th January 2017 in New Delhi.

The scope of cooperation includes:

1. Exchange of information on cyber security incidents and Response to cyber security incidents;
2. Exchange of information on prevalent cyber security policies and best practices; and
3. Exchange of approaches to capacity building and developing the cyber workforce;

The MoU will benefit mutually in strengthening cooperation between India and USA to improve Cyber Security readiness and raise awareness and importance of keeping systems secure and security practices & procedures updated.

The MoU facilitates cooperation on a range of activities which include:

a) Exchange information on security issues, including indicators of compromise and mitigation measures, in order to prevent incidents and their recurrence.
b) Coordinate response to cyber security events that may occur.
c) Determining the threshold for involvement of external entities for effective incident response & resolution for incidents impacting US and India.
d) Exchange assessments of the prevailing cyber security trends and best practices, as observed by each participant.
e) Identifying, elaborating, coordinating and implementing reasonable steps to secure the integrity of the supply chain to enhance users confidence in the security of ICT products and services
f) Invite each other to seminars/conferences held in respective countries to discuss cyber security issues
g) Conduct of cyber security exercises covering different scenarios and emerging areas and, any other areas of cooperation as may be mutually agreed upon.
h) Establishing mechanism for exchange of information on emerging threats, cooperation for incident resolution, promotion of best practices and capacity building for security of Industrial Control Systems and National Critical Information Infrastructure Protection.

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