Cyber attacks on India is “minimum”, but the government has taken a number of steps to protect the Indian cyberspace with proper synergies between all monitoring agencies, IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said on Wednesday.

As per the information reported to the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In), a total of 65 incidents involving ransomware were reported between 2014 and June 2017, he said in the Lok Sabha.

The details of the financial impact of these incidents have not been reported to CERT-In, which provides technical support and remediation, he said during Question Hour.

Prasad said the government was very cognizant about the security of the cyber world and was taking pro-active steps for its protection.

“India is becoming a digital power. We have an elaborate system for cyber security. However, the cyber attacks on India is very minimum, but we are always alert,” he said.

Terming the hackers as “digital fugitives”, the Minister said data protection was very crucial for any country as “data is the new oil.”

Data protection bill

Prasad said various security agencies were working in close coordination for the protection of the cyberspace and the government has already constituted a 10-member committee, headed by former Supreme Court judge Justice BN Srikrishna, to deliberate on a data protection framework for the country.

The panel will make specific suggestions to the government on the principles to be considered for data protection and also suggest a draft data protection bill.

Prasad also said the data related to Aadhaar was completely safe and its server was in India.

“34 incidents have been reported to CERT-In from organisations and individuals regarding infections of WannaCry and Petya ransomware,” he said.

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