(a): As per the information reported to and tracked by Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) a total number of 172, 110 and 54 websites of Central Ministries/Departments and State Governments were hacked during the year 2017, 2018 and 2019 respectively.
(b) and (c): Government has taken several steps to prevent cyber security incidents and enhancing cyber security in the country. These, inter alia, include:
(i) CERT-In is regularly tracking the hacking of websites and alerts the website owners concerned to take actions to secure the websites to prevent recurrence. Restoration of the affected website is done after taking necessary remedial measures.
(ii) CERT-In issues alerts and advisories regarding latest cyber threats and countermeasures on regular basis. CERT-In has published guidelines for securing IT infrastructure, which are available on its website (www.cert-in.org.in).
(iii) Government has issued guidelines for Chief Information Security Officers (CISOs) regarding their key roles and responsibilities for securing applications / infrastructure and compliance.
(iv) All the government websites and applications are to be audited with respect to cyber security prior to their hosting. The auditing of the websites and applications will be conducted on a regular basis after hosting also.
(v) Government has empanelled 90 security auditing organisations to support and audit implementation of Information Security Best Practices.
(vi) Government has formulated guidelines for Crisis Management Plan for countering cyber attacks and cyber terrorism for implementation by all Ministries/ Departments of Central Government, State Governments and their organizations and critical sectors.
(vii) Cyber security mock drills are being conducted regularly to enable assessment of cyber security posture and preparedness of organisations in Government and critical sectors. 46 such drills have so far been conducted by CERT-In where 362organisations from different States and sectors such as Finance, Defence, Power, Telecom, Transport, Energy, Space, IT/ITeS, etc participated.
(viii) CERT-In conducts regular training programmes for network / system administrators and Chief Information Security Officers (CISOs) of Government and critical sector organisations regarding securing the IT infrastructure and mitigating cyber attacks. 23 trainings covering 692 participants conducted in the year 2019.
(ix) Government has launched the Cyber Swachhta Kendra (Botnet Cleaning and Malware Analysis Centre). The centre is providing detection of malicious programs and free tools to remove the same.
(x) Government has set up National Cyber Coordination Centre (NCCC) to generate necessary situational awareness of existing and potential cyber security threats and enable timely information sharing for proactive, preventive and protective actions by individual entities. Phase-I of NCCC has been made operational.
*******
Download PDF Files
