Govt flags lack of cyber crisis management plan among agencies: Sources

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Only around half of the total number of departments and ministries in the Indian government, have their own Cyber Crisis Management Plan (CCMP), Moneycontrol has learnt.

However, the government is reportedly working on this and also on increasing the number of Chief Information Security Officers deployed in agencies, as well as improving their capabilities.

“CCMP for Countering Cyber Attacks and Cyber Terrorism” was launched in 2019 to create a framework for ministries/departments/bodies to deal with cyber attacks. The Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) is dealing with the implementation of CCMPs.

Sources have said that in a recent consultation, it was pointed out that there was a gap in capacity building for cybersecurity among government agencies.

As a recourse, now the government is trying to create a skilled set of Chief Information Security Officers (CISO) in these agencies, sources said. It also plans to increase the number of CISOs across agencies from the current number of 1,200, they added.

In 2018, a program called Cyber Surakshik Bharat, a partnership between the Government and industry consortium under Public Private Partnership (PPP), was launched to train 1,200 CISOs within the Central/State government, public sector undertakings, banks, and government organisations.

The government plans to further bolster the country's cybersecurity capabilities by ensuring that these CCMP's are routinely audited and updated with the help of CISOs, Moneycontrol has learnt.

During this consultation, it was also told to the publication that the government is trying to identify areas on which one can have a full stack of India products.

It was reportedly reasoned by the government that by using tools from abroad data was being lost.