New Delhi: As the state-sponsored Chinese hackers have been suspected to have focused Indian energy grids and ports with malware amid tensions alongside the Line of Actual Control (LAC), Congress leaders Manish Tewari and Rajmohan Unnithan raised the problem in Parliament looking for a response from the involved Information and Technology ministry citing the US cybersecurity agency’s research.
In the primary week of this month, the problem got here to the fore as The New York Times reported the matter quoting a US cybersecurity agency’s research. The report stated that Chinese hackers had allegedly focused Indian energy grids main to the October 12 grid failure in Mumbai.
The Congress MPs requested the Minister of Electronics and Information and Technology to reply to the next questions:
(a) whether or not a Chinese state-sponsored group Red Echo has used malware strategies to acquire a foothold in practically a dozen critical nodes throughout the Indian energy era/transmission infrastructure, together with transmission substation and a coal-fired energy plant, and in that case, the main points thereof and the response of the federal government thereto;
(b) whether or not the blackout in Mumbai on October 12, 2020 was a consequence of Chinese malware, Shadowpad and in that case, the main points thereof and the response of the federal government thereto;
(c) whether or not India’s Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) obtained any proof/findings about this from the cyber menace evaluation group Recorded Future and in that case, the main points thereof;
(d) whether or not the Government has initiated any formal investigation into this cyber attack and in that case, the main points and the result thereof;
(e) whether or not the aforementioned malware has attacked every other critical infrastructure of the nation and in that case, the main points thereof and the steps taken by the Government on this regard;
(f) the style during which the Government plans to retaliate towards such refined cyber-attacks; and
(g) whether or not the Government proposes to change the prevailing Chinese-made {hardware} in India’s critical infrastructure in view of those cyber-attacks and in that case, the main points thereof?
The Union IT Minister gave the next reply:Â
(a), (b) and (c): The Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) is serving as nationwide company for responding to cybersecurity incidents as per provisions of Section 70B of Information Technology Act, 2000. CERT-In receives inputs from its situational consciousness methods and menace intelligence sources about malware infections in networks of entities throughout sectors and issued alerts to involved organizations and sectoral CERTs together with within the energy sector for remedial measures. It has been noticed that attackers are compromising laptop methods situated in numerous elements of the world and use masquerading strategies and hidden servers to disguise the id of precise methods from which the assaults are being
launched.
(d), (e) and (f): Alerts and advisories are issued to key organisations and sectoral CERTs for taking response and preventive measures towards rising cyber-attacks.
The authorities has taken the next measures to improve the cybersecurity posture and stop cyberattacks:
i. The Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) points alerts and advisories relating to newest cyber threats/ vulnerabilities and countermeasures to defend computer systems and networks on common foundation.
ii. Government has issued pointers for Chief Information Security Officers (CISOs) relating to their key roles and tasks for securing functions / infrastructure and compliance.
iii. All the federal government web sites and functions are to be audited with respect to cyber safety prior to their internet hosting. The auditing of the web sites and functions is performed on an everyday foundation after internet hosting additionally.
iv. Government has empanelled safety auditing organisations to help and audit implementation of Information Security Best Practices.
v. Government has formulated Cyber Crisis Management Plan (CCMP) for countering cyber-attacks for implementation by all Ministries/ Departments of Central Government, State Governments and their organizations and critical sectors.
vi. Cyber safety mock drills are being performed commonly in Government and critical sectors.
vii. CERT-In conducts common coaching programmes for community/system directors and Chief Information Security Officers (CISOs) of Government and critical sector organisations relating to securing the IT infrastructure and mitigating cyber assaults.
viii. Government is working the Cyber Swachhta Kendra (Botnet Cleaning and Malware Analysis Centre). The centre is offering detection of malicious packages and free instruments to take away the identical.
ix. Government has arrange the National Cyber Coordination Centre (NCCC) to generate needed situational consciousness of current and potential cybersecurity threats. PhaseI of NCCC is operational.
(g): There is not any such proposal
