Over 6.07 lakh cyber security incidents reported in India during first half of 2021: Govt

Over 6.07 lakh cyber security incidents were observed in the country during the first half of 2021, Parliament was informed on Wednesday. Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) is mandated to track and monitor cyber security incidents in India, Minister of State for Electronics and IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar said in a written reply in the Lok Sabha.

“CERT-In has reported that a total number of 3,94,499, 11,58,208 and 6,07,220 cyber security incidents are observed during the year 2019, 2020 and 2021 (upto June), respectively,” he added.

The minister noted that the government has taken a number of measures to enhance the cyber security posture and prevent cyber attacks, including CERT-In issuing alerts and advisories regarding latest cyber threats/ vulnerabilities and counter-measures to protect computers, networks and data on regular basis.

To another question, Chandrasekhar said the government has formulated a draft National Cyber Security Strategy 2021 (NCSS2021), which holistically looks at addressing the issues of security of national cyberspace.

The total amount of funds allocated by the Ministry of Electronics and IT for strengthening cyber security in 2015-16 was Rs 85 crore.

This increased to Rs 70 crore in 2016-17, Rs 140.48 crore in 2017-18, Rs 150 crore in 2018-19, Rs 162 crore in 2019-20, Rs 310 crore in 2020-21 and Rs 416 crore in 2021-22, he said.

Responding to another question, Chandrasekhar said there is no proposal with the ministry to review the IT intermediary rules, which have been formulated based on wide public consultation and suggestions from stakeholders.

The rules have been introduced to ensure accountability of digital platforms to users and prescribe additional due dligence to be followed by large social media intermediaries.

Chandrasekhar, responding to another question, said there have been some complaints received by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) about the misuse of certain sites for online prostitution.

In response to another query, the minister said the National Informatics Centre (NIC), under MeitY, has developed an indigenous solution ‘Sandes’ for instant messaging communication.

“Sandes is an Open source based, Secure, Cloud enabled platform hosted on Government Infrastructure so that the strategic control remains with GOI. It has features like one to one and group messaging, file and media sharing, audio video call and e-gov application integration etc.

“The solution is being used by the Government and is available at Google Play Store and App Store,” Chandrasekhar added.