‘Cyber security a major challenge for govt organisations’

Governments are finding cyber security a major challenge given that they store far more data than the private sector but often in older and vulnerable systems.

They are regularly targeted not just by opportunistic hackers but also by teams funded and trained by other nations as has become evident in the latest outbreak of malware threat. They are looking for secure and productive technologies to ramp up systems.

C-DIT (Centre for Development of Imaging Technology), which develops web applications for the Kerala government, has recently deployed an IBM security solution through Chennai-based Raksha Technologies.

It is the high-risk of data breach and performance issues that the C-DIT sought a solution to improve the testing process and performance of the web applications, said G Jayaraj, Registrar, C-DIT.

The IBM Security solutions would allow it to test applications prior to deployment and for ongoing risk assessment in production environments.

During the last six months, the company has rectified more than 60 per cent of SQL injection attacks on its applications and discovered and corrected cross-site scripting attacks.

Most of the applications are hosted on the C-DIT’s own servers or servers hired from outside. But it has had to face a lot of security threats.

“In fact, we had to pull down one in 2014. So, we decided to go for an in-house testing facility to check vulnerabilities and other basic performance benchmarks,” Jayaraj told BusinessLine .

“Testing is mandatory before we host these applications on the State Data Centre. The IBM product has helped eliminate vulnerabilities in the first stage itself.”

Kartik Shahani, Integrated Security Leader, IBM India/South Asia, said that security threats to Government organisations are very different from that to an individual since the cost of the breach/malware attacks is significantly higher. Government organisations today are looking at regularly upgrading their security solutions to prepare themselves for any unforeseen attacks.

IBM Security AppScan Standard and IBM Rational Performance Tester software are able to reduce potential security risks such as web application attacks and costly data breaches, Shahani told BusinessLine .

“They can perform ongoing risk assessments on applications in the production environment itself, load test and perform test web applications and correct any issues prior to deployment.”

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