In a bid to secure India’s cyber space, the Government on Tuesday released the National Cyber Security Policy-2013.

The policy proposes to set up different bodies to deal with various levels of threat in the country along with a national nodal agency to coordinate all matters related to cyber security.

The Government would be able to monitor the Internet traffic and check on trends in cyber security compliance, cyber attacks, cyber crime and cyber infrastructure growth, said the Government officials.

It will also enable the Government to warn people before any damage from cyber incidents. For example, a flow of unusual traffic on a particular system, which is going to multiple devices and geographies, could be tracked down with the use of technologies. “Lot of participation can happen. One is the information exchange, as companies must share information with the respective Governments. Other is the human resource development in the area of security because that is a specialised subject coming from the specialised equipment,” Gulshan Rai, Director General, Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-IN), said.

He said, therefore, global companies must work with the Government to create that kind of infrastructure and environment.

Nodal agency

The Government would designate the National Security Coordination Secretariat (NSCS) as a national nodal agency, which will coordinate all matters related to cyber security in the country.

Apart from NSCS, the National Critical Information Infrastructure Protection Centre (NCIIPC) will also mandate security practices related to the design, acquisition, development, use and operation of information resources. NCIIPC will operate 24x7 to enhance the protection and resilience of the country’s critical information infrastructure, which will manage crises through effective predictive, preventive, protective response and recovery actions.

Though the policy guidelines were there since the last two years, the policy now in implementation stage, is clear on what the Government will do and how private companies can contribute to it.

“Roles are being defined and it would spread awareness to all Internet users, on using Internet banking, mobile banking and many back-end processes,” Kamlesh Bajaj, Chief Executive Officer, Data Security Council of India, said.

“We can always cooperate with the Government in terms of supplying security equipment and exchange information. India can become a certification country for global technology companies,” an official from a global technology firm said requesting anonymity.

However, there are many important things that the Government has to go deeper in terms of enhancing the confidence of people on how secured are they from cyber crimes, Akash Agarwal, Country Head at EC Council, said.

More professionals

He said there is also need for more skilled professionals immediately as the Government has only around 22,000 such people in place.

The Government should put the strategy in place regarding hiring of those five lakh professionals, which is in any case very less.

>ronendrasingh.s@thehindu.co.in

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