Lok Sabha Question No. 3887 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2019-12-11
Subject: Hacking of Indian Websites
Ministry: ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
Asked by: Bhartruhari Mahtab, Rahul Ramesh Shewale

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 3887

TO BE ANSWERED ON: 11.12.2019

## HACKING OF INDIAN WEBSITES

## 3887.   SHRI BHARTRUHARI MAHTAB: SHRI RAHUL RAMESH SHEWALE:

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

- (a) whether the instances of cyber crimes and hacking of Indian websites from foreign countries  have increased in recent years;
- (b) if  so,  the  details  thereof    including    the  number    of  such  instances  reported  during each  of  the  last  three  years  and  the  current  year,  country-wise  and  the  reasons therefor;
- (c) whether  the  Indian  Delegations  have  visited  the  said  countries  for  dialogue  under bilateral cooperation in the field of communications and IT during the said period;
- (d) if  so,  the  details  and  the  outcome  thereof,  country-wise  along  with  the  issues discussed in such dialogue; and
- (e) the  safeguards  in  place  to  prevent  cyber  crimes  and  hacking  of  Indian  websites  by foreign  countries  and  monitoring  the  activities  of  foreign  countries  along  with achievements thereof?

## 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) a total number of 33147, 30067, 17560 and 21467Indian websites were hacked during the year 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019 (till October) respectively.

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.

According to the logs analyzed and made available to CERT-In, the  Internet Protocol (IP) addresses of the computers from where the attacks appear to be originated belong to various countries  including  China,  Pakistan,  Netherlands,  France,  Taiwan,  Tunisia,  Russia,  Algeria and Serbia.

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

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/vulnerabilities  and  countermeasures  to protect computers and networks on regular basis
- (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  90  security  auditing  organisations  to  support  and audit implementation of Information Security Best Practices.
- (vi) 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.
- (vii) 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.
- (viii) 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.
- (ix) 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.
- (x) 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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