India to take steps to strengthen cyber infrastructure

India has decided to take stringent measures to protect its cyber infrastructure and also designate agencies to carry cyber attacks on other nations, reports Times of India. Reportedly, the reason behind this is the proof that shows that countries are launching cyber attacks for accessing critical intelligence information and also as an act of war against India. A comprehensive plan is expected to soon be approved by the National Security Council (NSC), which is being headed by Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh. The plan is to designate agencies, like the Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA) and National Technical Research Organization (NTRO) to carry out cyber operations, if required. Theere would also be other intelligence agencies authorized to carry out intelligence gathering abroad, however, they would not be assigned to carry any offensive operations.

India taking measures to combat cyber attacks...

The policy for national cyber infrastructure protection presented to the NSC now awaits approval. This policy identifies all government agencies with a role in the protection of Indian cyber infrastructure. The detailed policy also defines each one’s role. This move to define and designate agencies for offensive operations follows as New Delhi is tacking repeated cyber intrusions. Though most of these attacks were at gathering information, there could be a possibility of worse attacks, like bringing down power grid, stalling air traffic control system and more.

Over the years, cyber attacks in India have only been increasing. Earlier, Duqu infected servers were found in India and reports claimed that government websites were hacked about 200 times during Common Wealth Games 2010.  Then, last year AP government websites were hacked.  Although the hackers weren’t successful, the nefarious hackers were reported to hail from Jakarta (Indonesia), Algeria and Turkey.

CERT-IN (Computer Emergency Response Team India) is said to be responsible for the protection of most of the cyber space, while NTRO would be assigned to protect the critical infrastructure, like important government networks. Just two days ago, Anonymous had brought down the Cert-In.org, as a protest against Internet censorship in India.
 
The policy further suggests that defense forces would take responsibility for their own networks' protection. NTRO and Intelligence Bureau (IB) would take the security responsibility for various government networks. NTRO is said to operate through NCIPC, IB is expected to look at the physical security of networks. State polices, CBI, NIA and others would be assigned to follow up action, in case intrusions are detected.