Lok Sabha Question No. 2466 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2022-03-16
Subject: Website Hacking
Ministry: ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
Asked by: Ramcharan Bohra

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

## LOK SABHA

## UNSTARRED QUESTION. NO. 2466

TO BE ANSWERED ON: 16.03.2022

## WEBSITE HACKING

## 2466. SHRI RAMCHARAN BOHRA:

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

- (a) whether the Government is aware of several cases of website hacking;
- (b) if so, the details thereof during the last three years;
- (c) whether the Government has taken any steps to secure the computer systems from hacking; and
- (d) if so, the details thereof?

## ANSWER

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

- (a) and (b): Yes, Sir. The Government is committed to ensure that the Internet in India is Open, Safe & Trusted and Accountable for all users. 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 24768, 26121 and 28897 Indian websites were hacked during the  year 2019, 2020 and 2021respectively.
- (c) and(d): Government is fully cognizant and aware of various cyber security threats; and 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. CERT-In is operating an automated cyber threat exchange platform for proactively collecting, analysing  and  sharing  tailored  alerts  with  organisations  across  sectors  for  proactive  threat mitigation actions by them.
- 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 audited with respect to cyber security prior to their hosting.  The auditing of the websites and applications is conducted on a regular basis after hosting also.
- v. CERT-In has empanelled 96 security auditing organisations to support and audit implementation of Information Security Best Practices.
- vi. CERT-In  has  formulated  a  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.
- 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. 64 such drills have so far been conducted by CERT-In where 820 organizations from different States and sectors 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. 15 and 19 training programs were conducted covering 708 and 5169 participants during the year 2020 and 2021 respectively.
- ix. CERT-In  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.
- x. CERT-In  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.
- xi. 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.
- xii. The analytic centre at National Critical Information Infrastructure Protection Centre (NCIIPC) provides near real time threat intelligence and situation awareness based on which regular alerts and advisories are sent to Critical Information Infrastructure / Protected System entities to avert cyber-attacks.
- xiii. Ministry  of  Home  Affairs  (MHA)  has  issued  National  Information  Security  Policy  and Guidelines  (NISPG)  to  the  Central  Ministries  as  well  as  the  State  Governments/Union Territories in order to prevent information security breaches/Cyber intrusions in ICT infrastructure.

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