Lok Sabha Question No. 1625 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2020-09-21
Subject: Threat of Cyber Attack
Ministry: ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
Asked by: Talari Rangaiah

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

## LOK SABHA

## UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 1625

TO BE ANSWERED ON: 21.09.2020

## THREAT OF CYBER ATTACK

## 1625.   SHRI TALARI RANGAIAH:

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

- (a) whether the Government has made any efforts to protect the public against the possibility of cyber attacks during lockdown;
- (b) if so, the details thereof;
- (c) the steps taken by the Government to check cyber attacks completely and if so, the details thereof;
- (d) whether  the  Government  has  any  statistics  regarding  the  number  of  citizens  who  are vulnerable to cyber crimes amid Coronavirus pandemic; and
- (e) if so, the details thereof?

## ANSWER

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

(a) and  (b):    During  the  COVID-19  pandemic  situation,  the  Indian  Computer  Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) has worked proactively and tracked various cyber threats in the Indian cyber space. CERT-In issued 23 advisories on various topics such as secure use of web conferencing software, securing mobile devices and apps, secure use of Virtual Private Network (VPN), security best practices for Work From Home (WFH), security measures for healthcare sector,  online  safety  of  children,  various  phishing  attack  campaigns  pretending  to  be  from popular Apps and services and securely managing business continuity during crisis situation due to COVID- 19 pandemic. etc.In addition, CERT-In has conducted 3 cyber crisis exercises for organizations to train and guide them to respond to COVID-19 pandemic related cyberattacks. 72 organisations including key stakeholders participated in these exercises.

Cyber  security  incidents  such  as  phishing,  Distributed  Denial  of  Service  (DDoS)  attacks, website  intrusions,  malware  infections  and  vulnerable  services  were  handledbyCERT-In through coordinated measures with concernedorganisations and stakeholders.

(c):  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 will be conducted on a regular basis after hosting also.
- (iv) Government has empanelled 90 security auditing organisations to support and audit implementation of Information Security Best Practices.
- (v) Government has formulated Cyber 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.
- (vi) Cyber security mock drills are being conducted regularly to enable assessment of cyber security posture and preparedness of organisations in Government and critical sectors.  49  such  drills  have  so  far  been  conducted  by  CERT-In  where  434 organisations from different States and sectors such as Finance, Defence, Power, Telecom, Transport, Energy, Space, IT/ITeS, etc participated.
- (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.
- (viii) 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.
- (ix) 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.

(d) and (e):  Due to increase in online transactions, citizens are vulnerable to cyber crimes amid Coronavirus pandemic due to phishing and spamming.

'Police' and 'Public order' are State subjects as per the Constitution of India and States/UTs are primarily responsible for prevention, detection, investigation and prosecution of crimes through their law enforcement machinery. The Law Enforcement Agencies take legal action as per provisions of law against the cyber crime offenders.

Government  of  India  helps  States  in  combating  cyber  crimes  by  assisting  them  through advisories and funds under various schemes.

The Government has launched the online National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal, www.cybercrime.gov.in to enable citizens to report complaints pertaining to all types of cyber crimes with special focus on cyber crimes against women and children. A toll-free helpline no. 155260 has been made operational in all States/UTs to assist citizens.

Government is implementing a scheme 'India Cyber Crime Coordination Centre'(I4C) to deal with cyber crimes in a coordinated & comprehensive manner.

Further,  to  spread  awareness  on  cyber  crime,  several  steps  have  been  taken  that  include dissemination of messages on cyber crime through MHA Twitter handle @CyberDost, Radio campaign, publishing of Handbook for Adolescents / Students, publishing of 'Information Security Best practices' for the benefit of Govt. Officials, organizing of Cyber Safety and Security Awareness week, in association with police department in different States/UTs etc.

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