Centre flags cyber threats after halt in fighting with Pakistan
New Delhi: After the ceasefire between India and Pakistan, several advisories have been sent out this week within the government of India to guard against the ongoing
cyber warfare
, ET has learnt.
On May 12, the
National Informatics Centre
(NIC) is learnt to have cautioned all ministries and government departments on the "heightened threat perception in cyberspace" and the security measures that need to be undertaken to protect all government communication.
On May 10, all secretaries across ministries were asked to initiate an "internal Cyber Security Preparedness Exercise" in view of the "growing
cyber threats
and incidents across the nation". It was observed that the rapid advancement of technologies has "widened the attack surface and intensified the complexity of cyber risks".
On April 24, an '
emergency security alert
' of high 'severity' was issued to safeguard all government websites, applications and ICT infrastructure and all 'critical' government applications were placed behind specialised firewalls.
The Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology, NIC and India's computer emergency response team, Cert-in, among others have been fighting heavy cyber-attacks since the April 22 terror attack. ET first reported on how over 30-40 major cyber attacks were being warded off daily across government interfaces with the financial and power sectors and data centres being the primary targets.
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Most of the cyber attacks have aimed at defacement, data breach and rendering the website dysfunctional by flooding it with artificial traffic.
Pointing to the "prevailing geo-political situation and increased threat perception in cyberspace", all were advised to be alert and to ensure proper cyber security hygiene and best practices were followed both at personal desktop/laptop level as well as at application, database, server, data centre and network level.
All organisations have been asked to ensure immediate implementation of
cybersecurity best practices
ranging from regular password changes, use of strong and unique passwords, avoidance of suspicious or spam emails to ensuring removal of unmanaged LAN network devices from the network, upgrading the operating systems of all PCs/devices to the latest versions/patches, and removing obsolete equipment from the network.
Each ministry has been directed to conduct internal cyber security preparedness exercises through their deputed Chief Information Security Officers to "stay ahead of the evolving cyber threats and foster a proactive, adaptive security culture at all levels".
The critical nature of the e-office which hosts all government communication was also underlined by the NIC and Cert-in with several advisories on following VPN access protocol strictly, avoidance of public computers and devices and so on. It was underlined that government personnel must not store credentials on phone/computer or exchange any sensitive information through third party messaging apps/email or social media.
Specific security instructions have been sent to all those involved in testing, audit, operations and troubleshooting of any government website or application or database or ICT infrastructure/services.
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