Lok Sabha Question No. 1706 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2016-07-27
Subject: Cyber Espionage
Ministry: ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
Asked by: SUMEDHANAND SARASWATI, OM PRAKASH YADAV

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY  OF ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 1706

TO BE ANSWERED ON: 27.07.2016

## CYBER ESPIONAGE

## 1706 SHRI SUMEDHANAND SARSWATI: SHRI OM PRAKASH YADAV:

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

- (a) whether the Chinese Cyber espionage group DANTI attacked the Indian cyber space;
- (b) if so, the details thereof; and
- (c) the measures  being taken to check such cyber espionage?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER  OF STATE FOR MINISTRY OF ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (SHRI P.P. CHAUDHARY)

(a)  and  (b):  There  have  been  attempts  from  time  to  time  to  penetrate  systems/devices  of  cyber networks  operating  in  Government  and  its  personnel.    These  attacks  have  been  observed  to  be originating from the cyber space of a number of countries including China. It has been observed that the  attackers  are  compromising  computer  systems  located  in  different  parts  of  the  world  and  use masquerading  techniques  to  hide  the  identity  of  actual  system  from  which  the  attacks  are  being launched. During the current year, incidents of malware infection on certain systems of  National Informatics Centre (NIC) network  were detected and remedial measures taken. Actions have been initiated by NIC to prevent recurrence of infections.  A report has been published on Internet in May 2016 regarding cyber attacks by Danti Group with similar malicious infection patterns.

- (c): In order to enhance the cyber security posture of the country and check cyber espionage, the following key actions are being pursued:
- i.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.
- ii.The Government has circulated Computer Security Policy and Guidelines to all the Ministries/Departments on taking steps to prevent, detect and mitigate cyber attacks.
- iii.The Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) issues alerts and advisories regarding latest  cyber  threats/vulnerabilities  and  countermeasures  to  protect  computers  on  regular  basis. Security tips have been published to enable users to secure their Desktops and mobile/smart phones. Tailored alerts are sent to key organisations to enable them to detect and prevent cyber espionage.
- iv.Cyber  security  mock  drills  are  being  conducted  regularly  to  enable  assessment  of  cyber  security posture and preparedness of organizations in Government and critical sectors.
- v.NIC protects the cyber resources from possible compromises through a layered security approach in the  form of practices, procedures and technologies. NIC has deployed security solutions including

firewalls, intrusion prevention systems and antivirus solution. Additionally, periodic security audits of resources are performed followed by subsequent hardenings. These are complemented by roundthe-clock  monitoring  of  security  events  and  remedial  measures  are  carried  out  for  solving  the problems  subsequently.  A  24x7  security  monitoring  centre  is  in  place  at  NIC,  for  detecting  and responding to cyber security incidents.

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