Lok Sabha Question No. 2731 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2019-12-04
Subject: Nodal Cyber Security Agency
Ministry: ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
Asked by: Ganesan Selvam, Dhanush M Kumar, Soyam Babu Rao, Mohanbhai Kalyanji Kundariya, Vijay Kumar Dubey

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO.2731

TO BE ANSWERED ON: 04.12.2019

## NODAL CYBER SECURITY AGENCY

## 2731.  SHRI SELVAM G.:

SHRI DHANUSH M. KUMAR:

SHRI SOYAM BAPU RAO:

SHRI MOHANBHAI KALYANJI KUNDARIYA:

SHRI VIJAY KUMAR DUBEY:

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

- (a) whether the Government has setup any nodal cyber security agency CERT-In in the country and if so, the details thereof and the activities undertaken by it since its inception;
- (b) whether the Government has achieved the objective for which CERT-In was set up and if so, the details thereof along with the number of cyber crime cases reported and resolved since the inception of CERT-In;
- (c) whether CERT-In takes the help of foreign cyber security in tackling cyber security issues and if so, the details thereof;
- (d) whether reporting  of  Cyber  security  incidents  to  CERT-In  has  been  made  mandatory  by  the Government and if so, the details thereof; and
- (e) The  action  taken  by  the  CERT-In  against  body  corporate  for  not  reporting  cyber  security incidents

## ANSWER

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

(a):   The Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) has been functional since 2004  and  has  been  mandated  to  serve  as  national  agency  for  incident  response  as  per provisions of section 70B of Information Technology Act, 2000.

(b):  CERT-In is functioning as per its mandate as provided in section 70B of Information Technology Act, 2000.

As per  the  information  reported  to  and  tracked  by  Indian  Computer  Emergency  Response Team  (CERT-In),  around  8.5  lakh  cyber  security  incidents  including  phishing,  network scanning and probing, virus/malicious code and website hacking have been handled during the years 2004 to 2019 (till October).

In order to achieve its mandate the following activities are carried out by CERT-In:

- (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) CERT-In  has  empanelled  90  security  auditing  organisations  to  support  and  audit implementation of Information Security Best Practices.
- (iii) CERT-In 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.
- (iv) 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.
- (v) 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.
- (vi) CERT-In is operating the Cyber Swachhta Kendra (Botnet Cleaning and Malware Analysis  Centre)  launched  by  Government.  The  centre  is  providing  detection  of malicious programs and free tools to remove the same.
- (vii) 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.  NCCC  is  a multi  stakeholder  body  and  is  implemented  by  Indian  Computer  Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) at Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology.

(c):    For  resolution  of  incidents  involving  systems  outside  the  country,  CERT-In  devises response measures in coordination with its counterpart agencies in foreign countries.

(d) and  (e):  As per mandate of CERT-In under section 70B of Information Technology Act, 2000  and  rules  notified  therein,  service  providers,  intermediaries,  data  centres  and  body corporate shall  report  the  cyber  security  incidents  to  CERT-In  within  a  reasonable  time  of occurrence or noticing the incident to have scope for timely action. Appropriate notices are issued to body corporate in case of non-reporting of incidents to CERT-In.

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