Increasing Internet and mobile-based cyber attacks have forced the government to put together a national cyber security architecture among other cyber safeguards, National Security Adviser Shivshankar Menon said here on Monday.
A cyber security coordinator will head the set-up. The National Security Council has approved the architecture in principle, Mr. Menon said in his Raja Ramanna memorial lecture organised by the National Institute of Advanced Studies.
The step is part of a multi-pronged effort to prevent attacks, damage and leaks that cyber terrorists can cause to the country’s vital information system. A chip-making “fab” facility was also in the offing.
“The National Security Council Secretariat is in the process of setting up a national cyber security architecture to protect critical information infrastructure and other networks. A national Cyber Security Coordinator in the [NSC secretariat] will bring this work together,” Mr. Menon said.
The set-up “will involve monitoring, certification and assurance of our networks by designated agencies and bodies in accordance with the law. It will also involve capacity and authority for operations in cyber space. The goal is to prevent sabotage, espionage and other forms of cyber attacks which could hurt us,” he said.
Asked later about the recent killing of two Indian soldiers near the Line of Control with Pakistan, Mr. Menon merely said the LoC is clearly marked. The government should have a “much more proactive border management” using technology and intelligence and cultivate influences in these areas, he added.
Even while the country has improved its internal capabilities, external factors such as a restive Arab world and hostile neighbours “are likely to make life in India harder in the immediate future”, he said.
In an increasingly globalised economy, the line between the country’s internal and external security had blurred, he said. Today security went beyond traditional military concept and applied to food, energy, information as well as against internal threats from left-wing extremism, he said. Naxalite groups, he said, are connecting abroad through other Indian separatist or insurgent groups, particularly in the North-East. Foreign intelligence agencies and arms dealers are also in touch with them, he added.
