Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): Soon, a Big Boss will be keeping an eye on the agencies and departments of the state government to ensure that they do not compromise with cyber security norms, besides protecting the government's secured networks from ransomware and other types of cyber attacks and resolve cyber-security related issues.
The State Cyber Security Incident Response Team (CSIRT) will be an autonomous body, headed by a Level-16 scientist, who will be its director and comprising a technically competent team of experts, scientists and engineers.
The CSIRT may become functional within the next three months, a team of officials from the State Science and Technology Department, which is coordinating the formation of the body, told Free Press. An empowered team headed by the chief secretary has been formed to select the personnel to man the agency.
The new body will function along the lines of and in coordination with the Central agency Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In).
Madhya Pradesh is probably, the first state in the country to have a hi-tech cyber security agency of its own.
The CSIRT will prepare framework, policies, protocols and procedures related to cyber security to be followed and complied with by the departments, corporations and agencies of the state government. It will also be capable of infiltrating cyber networks of terror outfits and anti-national organised criminal gangs.
‘Its formation would help create awareness in the state regarding evolving cyber threats and build an enabling mechanism to thwart cyber attacks on the critical infra of the state and its people,’ Anshul Gupta, deputy secretary, department of science and technology said. It will also help the state government in proactively reaching out to its citizens with e-governance without jeopardising their personal data. It will also deal with financial frauds committed to using vulnerabilities in digital systems.
Preventive and reactive role
The proposed CSIRT will conduct cyber security safety audits of state government departments and agencies, assistant director, MP State Electronics Development Corporation, Nikhil Dubey said. The vulnerabilities detected in the system would be conveyed to the head of the organisation or department concerned, which will be expected to rectify them. If the rectification is not done, the CSIRT will have the power to block the access of that particular agency to the government's cyber network. This will be a preventive role of the proposed body. It will also play a reactive role in detecting cyber attacks and limiting the damage done by them.
