Lok Sabha Question No. 1847 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2018-03-07
Subject: Misuse of Servers by Cyber Criminals
Ministry: ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
Asked by: RANJANBEN BHATT

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF ELECTRONICS & INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO.1847

TO BE ANSWERED ON: 07.03.2018

## MISUSE OF SERVERS BY CYBER CRIMINALS

## 1847.   SHRIMATI  RANJANBEN BHATT:

Will  the  Minister  of  ELECTRONICS  AND  INFORMATION  TECHNOLOGY  be  pleased  to state:

- (a) whether a number of servers are being misused by cyber criminals in the country;
- (b) if so, whether the Government is considering to take any concrete and effective steps to stop this malpractice; and
- (c) if so, the details thereof and if not, the reasons therefor?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER OF STATE FOR  ELECTRONICS AND  INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (SHRI  K.J. ALPHONS)

(a):  Organisations  use  servers  to  host  websites  and  applications  for  dissemination  of information and providing services to users. The servers not configured properly and having vulnerable software are prone to hacking and could be misused by cyber criminals. In tune with the dynamic nature of Information Technology and emerging cyber threats, continuous efforts  are  required  to  be  made  by  owners  to  protect  servers  by  way  of  hardening  and deploying appropriate security controls.

(b) and (c): Government has taken various steps for preventing cyber attacks and enhancing the cyber security of information technology infrastructure in the country, these are:

- i. All  the  new  government  websites  and  applications  are  to  be  audited  with respect to cyber security prior to their hosting.  The auditing of the websites and applications is to be conducted on a regular basis after hosting. The Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) has empanelled 67 security auditing  organizations  to  support  and  audit  implementation  of  Information Security Best Practices.
- ii. 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. CERT-In also  issues  alerts  and  advisories  regarding  latest  cyber  threats  and countermeasures on regular basis.
- iii. The Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) issues alerts and advisories regarding latest cyber threats/vulnerabilities and countermeasures to protect computers/servers on regular basis.
- iv. Cyber security mock drills are being conducted regularly to enable assessment of  cyber  security  posture  and  preparedness  of  organizations  in  Government and  critical  sectors.  15  such  drills  have  so  far  been  conducted  by  CERT-In where  148  organisations  from  different  States  and  sectors  such  as  Finance, Defence, Power, Telecom, Transport, Energy, Space, IT/ITeS, etc participated. In addition 3 drills were conducted in coordination with The Reserve Bank of India and The Institute for Development and Research in Banking Technology.
- v. 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. 22 training programs covering 610 participants were conducted during the year 2017.
- vi. Government  has  initiated  setting  up  of  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.
- vii. 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.
- viii. National Information Centre (NIC), which provides IT / E-Governance related services to Government  departments  protects the cyber resources from possible  compromises  through  a  layered  security  approach  in  the  form  of practices, procedures and technologies that are put in place. NIC has deployed state-of-the-art  security  solutions  including  firewalls,  intrusion  prevention systems, anti-virus solution. Additionally, periodic security audits of resources are  performed  followed  by  subsequent  hardenings.  These  are  complemented by round-the-clock monitoring of security events and remedial measures are carried out for solving the problems subsequently.

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