Lok Sabha Question No. 4624 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2021-03-24
Subject: Cyber Attack by Chinese Hackers
Ministry: ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
Asked by: Lallu Singh, Tapir Gao

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 4624

TO BE ANSWERED ON: 24.03.2021

## CYBER ATTACK BY CHINESE HACKERS

## 4624.  SHRI LALLU SINGH: SHRI TAPIR GAO:

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

- (a) whether the hackers supported by Chinese Government have perpetrated cyber attacks in past few months in the country;
- (b) if so, the details thereof along with the number of such attacks happened during the last six months;
- (c) the details of the action taken by the Government in this regard; and the measures being taken by the Government to strengthen cyber security in the country;

## ANSWER

## MINISTER OF STATE FOR ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (SHRI SANJAY DHOTRE)

(a) and (b):  The Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) is serving as national agency for  responding to cyber security incidents as per provisions of Section 70B of Information Technology Act, 2000. CERT-In receives inputs from its situational awareness systems and threat intelligence sources about malware  infections in networks  of entities across sectors and issues alerts to  concerned organisations  and  sectoral  CERTs  for  remedial  measures.  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.

(c) and  (d):   Alerts and advisories are issued to key organisations and sectoral CERTs for taking response and preventive measures against emerging cyber attacks.

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

- i.       The Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) issues alerts and advisories regarding latest  cyber  threats/vulnerabilities  and  countermeasures  to  protect  computers  and  networks  on regular basis.
- ii. Government has issued guidelines for Chief Information Security Officers (CISOs) regarding their key roles and responsibilities for securing applications / infrastructure and compliance.
- iii. 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 is conducted on a regular basis after hosting also.
- iv. Government has empanelled security auditing organisations to support and audit implementation of Information Security Best Practices.
- v. Government has formulated Cyber Crisis Management Plan (CCMP) for countering cyber attacks for implementation by all Ministries/ Departments of Central Government, State Governments and their organizations and critical sectors.
- vi. Cyber security mock drills are being conducted regularly in Government and critical sectors.
- 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.
8. viii.
- ix. operational.

Government  is  operating  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. Government  has  set  up  the  National  Cyber  Coordination  Centre  (NCCC)  to  generate  necessary situational  awareness  of  existing  and  potential  cyber  security  threats.    Phase-I  of  NCCC  is

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