Lok Sabha Question No. 2048 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2018-03-07
Subject: Cyber Attacks on Portals
Ministry: ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
Asked by: ANURAG SINGH THAKUR

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 2048

TO BE ANSWERED ON: 07.03.2018

## CYBER ATTACKS ON PORTALS

## 2048.     SHRI ANURAG SINGH THAKUR:

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

- (a) the  number  of  cyber  attacks  on  Indian  portals  in  2017-18  (please  classify  them  as governmental/others,  websites/  apps,    malware  /ransomware/  hacking,  payment gateway attacks etc.);
- (b) the  number  of  attacks  forecasted  and  alerted  by  Computer  Emergency  Response Team-India in 2017-18; and
- (c) the measures undertaken by the Government to prevent and mitigate all kinds of cyber threats, including cyber attacks?

## ANSWER

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

(a):    As  per  information  reported  to  and  tracked  by  the  Indian  Computer  Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) a total of 22,207 Indian websites including 114 Government websites were hacked during April 2017 to January 2018.  A total number of 493 affected websites were used for malware propagation.

Further,  As  per  the  information  reported  to  and  tracked  by  National  Informatics  Centre (NIC), a total number of 74 and 6 Government websites  hosted on NICNET were hacked during the year 2017 and 2018 (till February)  respectively.

(b):  A total of 301 security alerts regarding potential vulnerabilities and threats to multiple systems and applications were issued by CERT-In during April 2017 to January 2018. In addition, various tailored alerts were sent to key organisations to enable them to detect and prevent cyber attacks.

(c)  Government has  taken  various  measures  for  preventing  cyber  security  incidents  and enhancing  the  cyber  security  of  information  technology  infrastructure  in  the  country. These are:

- i. Information  Technology  Act,  2000  has  adequate  deterrent  provisions  for  cyber threats and cyber attacks.
- ii. 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.

- iii. 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.
- iv. Government has formulated Cyber 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.
- v. Government has issued general guidelines to Chief Information Security Officers (CISOs)  defining  their  key  roles  and  responsibilities  for  securing  applications  / infrastructure and compliance.
- vi. 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.
- vii. 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.
- 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.  22  training  programs  covering  610  participants  were conducted during the year 2017.
- ix. 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.
- x. 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.
- xi. 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. Also, relevant advisories are circulated among the NICNET users  for  taking  precautionary  measures  from  time-to-time.  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  hardenings.  These  are  complemented  by  round-the-clock monitoring of security events.
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