In the wake of the controversy surrounding the Sprinklr deal, the State government has decided to carry out a security audit by CERT-In, the nodal agency responsible for dealing with cyber security threats, of the various data collected by the government departments and agencies related to COVID-19.
The Kerala State IT Mission (KSITM) Director has been authorised to entrust the agency empanelled under CERT-In (Indian Computer Emergency Response Team) under the Union Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology to carry out the audit work.
The agency will have to execute the security audit of the data stored in the Amazon cloud platform in line with the guidelines of the government. The KSITM Director has been asked to execute a Non-Disclosure Agreement with the agency before commencing the audit, which shall include conditions to ensure security of data shared for audit purpose.
The decision was taken at a high-level meeting chaired by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan. The Information Technology Department had made a presentation to the Chief Minister, who also handles IT portfolio, on processing and utilisation of data for containment activities of COVID-19.
The government felt it necessary to analyse the data collected using data analytics techniques and tools and to ensure the security of the data collected and captured in the Cloud system, says the order issued by the Electronics and Information Technology Department.
Incidentally, the government order has been issued on April 21 when the Sprinklr row was raging in the State. The LDF government has roped in the U.S.-based company to collate the personal health data collected by field-level workers from nearly 1.75 lakh people categorised as “vulnerable and potentially exposed” to the pandemic.
The Opposition was critical of the government for procuring a healthcare worker mobile application from the firm using disaster management funds to input the details of persons under surveillance without inviting tenders, seeking legal opinion and approval of the Cabinet.
