Despite being world-known as an Information Technology superpower,
India,
lags far behind when it comes to official cyber security workforce
which comprises a mere 556 experts deployed in various government
agencies. If we compare the figures with
China, the US and
Russia, China has 1.25 lakh experts, the U.S. 91,080 and Russia 7,300.
As per National Security Council Secretariat (NSCS), the current
strength of cyber experts in India is grossly inadequate to handle cyber
security activities in a meaningful and effective manner. To strengthen
the sector the government has decided to recruit 4,446 experts to be
deployed in six organisations that would take care of India’s cyber
security
infrastructure.
What are the major organizations which constitute India’ cyber security infrastructure?
These are the Department of Electronics and Information Technology
(DEITy), which includes Indian-Computer Emergency Response Team
(CERT-In) and the National Informatics Centre (NIC); the Department of
Telecom (DoT); the National Technical Research Organisation (NTRO); the
Ministry of
Defence; the Intelligence Bureau (IB); and the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO).
What is the status of cyber security in China and the US?
China:
China has
“Information Support and Safeguarding Base” to serve
as People’s Liberation Army cyber command to address potential cyber
threats and safeguard national security. China also has hackers who work
for the government. Its cyber workforce is composed of various
components of military, national security, public security, propaganda
militia and academia. It now has an estimated strength of
1.25-lakh personnel which
includes regular troops (30,000), specialists from various
universities, research institutes and states enterprises (60,000), and
militia (35,000).
The U.S.:
It has
91,080 experts in its cyber security workforce, of whom
88,169 are in the Department of Defense alone. The recent revelations
has shown that how the US has been carrying out its clandestine
electronic surveillance world over including, India, through its PRISM
programme being run by the National Security Agency (NSA) of the US.
The U.S. has also established a 24×7
National Cyber Security and Communications Integration Centre (NCCIC)that
is responsible for generating a common operating picture for cyber and
communications across the federal, state and local governments,
intelligence and law enforcement communities and the private sector. In
the event of a cyber or communications incident, the
NCCIC functions
as the national response centre able to bring to bear the full
capabilities of the federal government in a coordinated manner.
What is India doing to address its cyber security concerns?
As per a study conducted by NSCS, all major countries have set up
mechanism and organizations dedicated to cyber security, a field where
India has performed poorly. To address this concern, India has decided
to establish its own ‘
cyber security architecture’ that will comprise the
National Cyber Coordination Centre (NCCC) for
threat assessment and information sharing among stakeholders, the Cyber
Operation Centre that will be jointly run by the NTRO and the armed
forces for threat management and mitigation for identified critical
sectors and defence, and the National Critical Information
Infrastructure Protection Centre (NCIIPC) under the NTRO for providing
cover to ‘critical information infrastructure’. The government is also
coming up with a
legal framework to deal with cyber security.
