Lok Sabha Question No. 1915 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2019-07-03
Subject: Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre and Cyber Police Force
Ministry: ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
Asked by: Uday Pratap Singh

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO.1915

TO BE ANSWERED ON: 03.07.2019

## INDIAN CYBER CRIME COORDINATION CENTRE AND CYBER POLICE FORCE

## 1915.     SHRI UDAY PRATAP SINGH:

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

- (a) whether  Government  has  set  up/  proposes  considering  to  set  up  an  Indian  Cyber Crime  Coordination  Centre  and  Cyber  Police  Force  to  monitor  the  ever  increasing crimes over internet;
- (b) if so, the details thereof and the time by which the said centre and the force are likely to be set up; and
- (c) whether matters regarding cyber-attacks from neighboring countries have come to the notice  of  the  Government  and  if  so,  the  details  thereof  and  the  reaction  of  the Government thereto?

## ANSWER

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

(a) and (b): Ministry of Home Affairs ( MHA) has rolled out a scheme 'Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C)' for the period 2018-2020, to combat cyber crime in the country, in a coordinated and effective manner. The scheme has following seven components:

- a. National Cybercrime Threat Analytics Unit
- b. National cybercrime Reporting Portal
- c. Platform for Joint Cybercrime investigation Team
- d. National Cybercrime Forensic Laboratory Ecosystem
- e. National Cybercrime Training Centre
- f. Cybercrime Ecosystem Management unit
- g. National Cyber Research and Innovation Centre

(c): There  have  been  attempts  from  time-to-time  to  launch  cyber  attacks  on  Indian  cyber space, like elsewhere in the world. These attacks have been observed to be originating from the  cyber  space  of  a  number  of  countries  including  neighboring  countries.  It  has  been observed that attackers are compromising computer systems located in different parts of the world  and  use  masquerading  techniques  and  hidden  servers  to  hide  the  identity  of  actual systems from which the attacks are being launched.

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 several steps to prevent cyber security incidents and enhancing cyber security in the country. These, inter alia, include:

- (i) Government has established National Critical Information Infrastructure Protection Centre (NCIIPC) for protection of critical information infrastructure in the country, as per the provisions of section 70A of the Information Technology (IT) Act, 2000.
- (ii) 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.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 84 security auditing organisations to support and audit implementation of Information Security Best Practices.
- (vi) All  organizations  providing  digital  services  have  been  mandated  to  report  cyber security incidents to CERT-In expeditiously.
- (vii)  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.
- (viii) Cyber security mock drills and exercises are being conducted regularly to enable assessment of cyber security posture and preparedness of organizations in Government and critical sectors. 43 such exercises have so far been conducted by CERT-In  where  organisations  from  different  sectors  such  as  Finance,  Defence, Power, Telecom, Transport, Energy, Space, IT/ITeS sectors participated.
- (ix) 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.  24  trainings  covering  845  participants  conducted  in  the year 2018.
- (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) 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.

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