Lok Sabha Question No. 31 (STARRED), answered on 2018-12-12
Subject: Website Hacking
Ministry: ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
Asked by: HARISH DWIVEDI

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

## LOK SABHA STARRED QUESTION NO.*31

TO BE ANSWERED ON: 12.12.2018

## WEBSITE HACKING

## *31 SHRI HARISH CHANDRA ALIAS HARISH DWIVEDI:

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

- (a) whether the Government is aware of several cases of website hacking;
- (b) if so, the details thereof during the last three years;
- (c) whether  the  Government  has  taken  any  steps  to  secure  the  computer  system  from hacking; and
- (d) if so, the details thereof?

## ANSWER

MINISTER FOR ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (SHRI RAVI SHANKAR PRASAD)

- (a) to (d): A Statement is laid on the Table of the House.

## STATEMENT REFERRED TO IN REPLY TO LOK SABHA STARRED QUESTION NO. *31 FOR 12-12-2018 REGARDING WEBSITE HACKING

….....

- (a) and  (b):  As  per  information  reported  to  and  tracked  by  Indian  Computer  Emergency Response Team (CERT-In), 33147, 30067 and 15779 Indian websites were hacked during the years 2016, 2017 and 2018 (upto November) respectively.
- (c)  and (d): In tune with the dynamic nature of Information Technology and emerging cyber threats, continuous efforts are required to be made by owners to protect networks by way of hardening and deploying appropriate security controls.

Government has taken following measures to enhance the cyber security  and prevent cyber attacks:

- (i) The  Indian  Computer  Emergency  Response  Team  (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.certin.org.in).
- (ii) Government has formulated 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.
- (iii) Cyber security exercises are being conducted regularly to enable assessment of cyber security posture and preparedness of organizations in Government and critical sectors. 38  such  exercises  have  so  far  been  conducted  by    CERT-In,  wherein  organisations from different sectors such as Finance, Defence, Power, Telecom, Transport, Energy, Space, IT/ITeS etc participated.
- (iv) Government has issued  guidelines  for  Chief  Information  Security  Officers  (CISOs) regarding their key roles and responsibilities for securing applications / infrastructure and compliance.
- (v) New  government  websites  and  applications  are      audited  with  respect  to  cyber security  prior  to  their  hosting.    The  auditing  of  the  websites  and  applications  is conducted on a regular basis after hosting.
- (vi) Government has empanelled 76 security auditing organisations to support and audit implementation of Information Security Best Practices.
- (vii) 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.

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