Lok Sabha Question No. 672 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2016-04-27
Subject: Cyber Crimes
Ministry: COMMUNICATIONS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
Asked by: DUSHYANT SINGH, K. KAMARAAJ, G. HARI

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF COMMUNICATIONS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (DEPARTMENT OF ELECTRONICS &INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY)

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO.  672

TO BE ANSWERED ON: 27.04.2016

## CYBER  CRIMES

## 672      SHRI  DUSHYANT  SINGH:   DR.  K.  KAMARAJ:  SHRI G.  HARI:

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

- (a) the details of the major and minor Cyber Attacks which have been attempted on the Government websites/databases during the last year;
- (b) whether there has been a loss/theft/adulteration of significant data through these attacks;
- (c) if so, the details thereof; and
- (d) the steps taken by the Government to deal with this grave cyber security issue?

## ANSWER

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

- (a):   As per the information reported to and tracked by Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In), a total number of   164 Government websites were hacked during the year 2015.
- (b) and (c):  The Government websites host information for public dissemination. No sensitive information is hosted on Government websites. As per the guidelines of the Government, the Computer systems with sensitive information are isolated from Internet.
- (d):     Government has taken the following steps to enhance cyber security and to protect the websites:
- i. The Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) regularly tracks the hacking of websites and alerts the website owners concerned to take actions to secure the websites to prevent recurrence.
- ii. CERT-In issues alerts and advisories regarding latest cyber threats and countermeasures on regular basis. CERT-In has published guidelines for securing the websites, which are available on its website (www.cert-in.org.in). CERTIn also conducts regular training programmes to make the system administrators aware about secure hosting of the websites.
- iii. In order to protect the websites of Government departments a layered security approach in the form of practices, procedures and technologies is put in place. National Informatics Centre (NIC) that hosts the Government websites has  deployed  state-of-the-art  security  solutions  including  firewall,  intrusion  prevention  systems  and  anti-virus solution.
- iv. All major websites are being monitored regularly to detect malicious activities. A 24x7 security monitoring centre is  operational  in  NIC  for  responding  to  security  incidents.  The  security  events  generated  from  various  security solutions on NIC Network (NICNET) are monitored round the clock for taking remedial measures.
- v. All Central Government Ministries / Departments and State / Union Territory Governments have been advised to conduct security auditing of entire Information Technology infrastructure. All the new government websites and applications are to be audited with respect to cyber security prior to their hosting. The auditing of the websites and applications is to be conducted on a regular basis after hosting also. Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) provides necessary expertise to audit IT infrastructure of critical and other ICT sectors.
- vi. 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.
- vii. Cyber  security  mock  drills  are  being  conducted  regularly  to  enable  assessment  of  cyber  security  posture  and preparedness of organizations in Government and critical sectors.

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