MUMBAI: The Prime Minister’s Office has approved a plan to spend 1,000 crore over the next four years to bolster the country’s defence against cyber attacks, according to a person familiar with the development. The plan, which entails setting up of new agencies and coordination cells to improve response to cyber threats, is awaiting Cabinet Committee clearance, the person said.
Reinforcement of the country’s defence against cyber attacks has been afoot since 2010. The plan gained traction after a report of the Computer Emergency Response Team India (CERT-In) said cyber security threats rose from 23 in 2004 to 22,060 in 2012. As per the plan, The National Security Council Secretariat will coordinate among agencies and implement a policy outlined by the Intelligence Bureau, which is under the home ministry. In the current Five-year Plan, the project will require an estimated
Rs 200 crore each in the current and next fiscal year, andRs 300 crore each in the following two years. As part of the plan, the Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DEITY), which will be responsible for coordination and implementation of secure and integrated networks across states, has proposed to set up of a National Cyber Coordination Centre involving an expenditure of Rs 500 crore over five years.
In addition, DEITY has proposed a disaster recovery centre for the coordination cell, which will include 110 technical officers. The proposal also includes a Rs 50 crore spend over five years on a Cyber Security Assurance and Certification Body and Rs 100 crore that will be needed within one year for conformance testing centres.
According to the person quoted above, the security evaluation of IT and encryption products is expected to cost Rs 100 crore within one year of sanction. The agencies central to the plan are the Department of Telecommunications, National Technical Research Organisation which will identify critical information infrastructure and set up cyber operation centers home ministry, IB, law enforcement agencies, defence ministry, the Defence Research and Development Organisation which will conduct vulnerability detection and the defence services.
Source: Economics Times
