Log out of your IT systems after work daily, it's important for cyber security: PM Modi tells senior bureaucrats

Cyber security has seen a concern for the government following a number of cyberattacks on government systems over the last few years.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s advised senior bureaucrats to log out of their IT systems after the day’s work.

“Do you log out of your IT systems after the day’s work? I do…it is important for cyber security,” said the PM at a recent meeting while stressing upon the issue of cyber security.

According to News18, PM Modi is also said to have advised the officers that one person in each office can be designated to go around at the end of the day to ensure all systems have been logged out of.

PM Modi said he religiously logs out of his system when he goes home. PM Modi also shared that he had discussed the issue of cyber security with Bill Gates in a meeting this March.

According to News18, a set of written directions was issued subsequently by the Cabinet Secretary after the PM’s meeting. It urged that the “ministries to take steps to make their IT systems resilient and to sensitize the officers to ensure unscrupulous adherence to cyber security guidelines and protocols…this should be a continuing endeavour”.

Cyber security has seen a concern for the government following a number of cyberattacks on government systems over the last few years. For example, during the G20 Summit last year, the government’s official website for the event faced a relentless onslaught of cyber attacks, with an average of 16 lakh attacks every minute,

The interim budget earlier this year increased the allocation for the Cybercrime Coordination Centre (I4C) by at least 70 per cent, while the cyber coordination budget increased by a whopping 900 per cent as compared to 2022. This underscores the central government’s recognition of the growing importance of cybersecurity, according to the Ministry of Home Affairs.

The recent DGP/IGP Conference also allocated significant time to the key topic of cyber threats and security and discussed the issue of “Emerging cyber threats from national-state actors and strategies to mitigate threats on critical information structure”. Strategies were drawn up for mitigating threats, particularly targeting critical information structures in the health sector.