Lok Sabha Question No. 1553 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2021-07-28
Subject: Cyber Security Incidents
Ministry: ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
Asked by: Brijendra Singh

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA

## MINISTRY OF ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 1553

TO BE ANSWERED ON: 28.07.2021

## CYBER SECURITY INCIDENTS

## 1553.    SHRI BRIJENDRA SINGH:

Will the Minister of ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY be pleased to state:

- (a) whether  cyber  security  incidents  in  the  country  have  increased  in  conjunction  with escalating border disputes with neighbouring countries;
- (b) if so, the details thereof and the reaction of the Government thereto;
- (c) whether  the  Government  plans  to  set  up/has  set  up  a  central  authority  tackling  cyber security threats to the country's critical infrastructure in particular; and
- (d) if so, the details thereof and the steps being taken by the Government in this regard?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER OF STATE FOR ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (SHRI RAJEEV CHANDRASEKHAR)

- (a):    Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) is mandated to track and monitor cyber security incidents in India. CERT-In has reported that a total number of 394499, 1158208 and 607220 cyber security incidents are observed during the year 2019, 2020 and 2021 (upto June) respectively.
- (b):   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, networks and data on regular basis.
- ii. CERT-In is sharing early warning threat intelligence alerts with over 700 organisations across sectors to enable active threat prevention.
- iii. Government has issued guidelines for Chief Information Security Officers (CISOs) regarding their key roles and responsibilities for securing applications / infrastructure and compliance.
- iv. Government has empanelled 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 and exercises are conducted regularly to enable assessment of cyber security posture and preparedness of organisations in Government and critical sectors. 59 such drills have so far been conducted by CERT-In where 565 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 is operating 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 set up the National Cyber Coordination Centre (NCCC) to generate necessary situational  awareness  of  existing  and  potential  cyber  security  threats.  Phase-I  of  NCCC  is operational.
- x. CERT-In  also co-operates, works and coordinates incident response measures with international CERTs, overseas organisations and service providers as well as Law Enforcement Agencies.

(c) and (d):  The Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) has been functional since 2004 and has been mandated to serve as national nodal agency for incident response as per provisions of Section 70B of Information Technology (IT) Act, 2000.  Under the provision of Section 70A of IT Act, Government has established National Critical Information Infrastructure Protection  Center  (NCIIPC),  as  the  national  nodal  agency  in  respect  of  Critical  Information Infrastructure protection.

*******