In a bid to deal with the sabotage, espionage and other forms of cyber attacks, the government is developing a national cyber security architecture. The facility will be also responsible for safeguarding the country’s information information infrastructure and networks as well as offering certification to service providers and vendors to ensure additional security measures. The revelation was made by National Security Advisor Shivshankar Menon.
An Economic Times report quotes Menon as saying: “It will also involve capacity and authority for operations in cyber space. The goal is to prevent sabotage, espionage and other forms of cyber attacks that could hurt us.”
The National Security Council has okayed the architecture in principle even as the implementation details are being chalked out with the ministries and agencies, “which we hope to take to the Cabinet for approval soon”, Menon said. A national cyber security coordinator in the National Security Council Secretariat (NSCS) will be responsible for bring this work together.
According to a report by McAfee and Security and Defence Agenda released May 2012, India ranks fifth among countries most affected by cyber crimes. The report had stressed the need to train and equip the law enforcement agencies including judiciary, especially outside the metro cities to combat the cyber attacks.
The Indian government has been taking various measures to secure its network. Last year, the then Home Minister P Chidambaram revealed the government was planning to set up National Threat Intelligence Centre in view of rising cyber crimes such as identity theft, hacking, financial fraud, child pornography and corporate espionage.
Despite various efforts, the government sites and networks have continued to be attacked by cyber criminals and hacking groups. According to recent CERT-In data, more than 14,000 websites were hacked till October last year, witnessing a steep hike of 57 percent from 2009. Minister of State for Communications and IT Milind Deora revealed in the Parliament about 294 websites of various government departments and ministries were attacked by hackers during the period between January-October 2012.
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