Lok Sabha Question No. 1848 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2019-07-03
Subject: Cyber Security Breaches
Ministry: ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
Asked by: Sanjay Jaiswal

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 1848

TO BE ANSWERED ON: 03.07.2019

## CYBER SECURITY BREACHES

## 1848.      DR. SANJAY JAISWAL:

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

- (a) whether there has been a rise in the number of cyber security breaches in the country in the past few years;
- (b)  if so, the details thereof along with the steps taken/being taken by the Government in this regard; and
- (c)    the  steps  taken/being  taken  by  the  Government  to  strengthen  cyber  security  in  the country?

## ANSWER

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

(a) to (c):  As  per the information reported to and tracked by Indian Computer Emergency Response  Team  (CERT-In)  a  total  number  of    53117,  208456  and  105849  cyber  security incidents  including  phishing,  network  scanning  and  probing,  virus  /  malicious  code  and website hacking are reported during the year 2017, 2018 and 2019 (till May) 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 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  are 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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