Lok Sabha Question No. 1522 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2019-11-27
Subject: Cyber Attacks
Ministry: ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
Asked by: S. Venkatesan

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 1522

TO BE ANSWERED ON: 27.11.2019

## CYBER ATTACKS

## 1522.   SHRI S. VENKATESAN:

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

- (a) whether incidents of cyber attacks have increased in recent times;
- (b)    if so, the details thereof including the incidents of cyber attacks reported during each of the last three years and the steps taken by the Government in this regard; and
- (c) whether foreign companies are behind any such cyber attacks, if so, the details thereof and the effective steps and action taken by the Government in this regard?

## ANSWER

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

(a)  and  (b)  :  As  per  the  information  reported  to  and  tracked  by  Indian  Computer  Emergency  Response Team (CERT-In),  50362, 53117, 208456 and 313649 cyber security incidents including phishing, network scanning and probing, virus/malicious code and website hacking are reported during the year 2016, 2017, 2018 and  2019 (till October) respectively.

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 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) Government  has  empanelled  90  security  auditing  organisations  to  support  and  audit  implementation  of Information Security Best Practices.
- (iv) 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.
- (v) Cyber security mock drills are being conducted regularly to enable assessment of cyber security posture and preparedness of organisations in Government and critical sectors. 44 such drills have so far been conducted by CERT-In where 265 organisations from different States and sectors such as Finance, Defence, Power, Telecom, Transport, Energy, Space, IT/ITeS, etc participated.
- (vi) 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.  19  trainings  covering  515  participants  conducted  in  the  year 2019 till October.
- (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) 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.

(c):      There  have  been  attempts  from  time-to-time  to  launch  cyber attacks  on Indian  cyber  space.  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.  For  resolution  of  incidents  involving  systems  outside  the  country,  CERT-In  devises  response measures in coordination with its counterpart agencies in foreign countries.

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