Government to Announce New Cyber Security Policy Soon

New Delhi, Delhi, India | 11^th March 2020: While speaking at the 6^th Cyber Security India Summit 2020 held at New Delhi, Lt. Gen. (Dr.) Rajesh Pant, National Cyber Security Coordinator, Prime Minister’s Office, Government of India said that Government of India is working on a new Cyber Security Policy.

According to Lt. Gen. Pant the new policy is expected to touch all aspects related with the cyber ecosystem. The policy is expected to be announced within two to three months time. The Cyber policy would address the issues of standardization, testing, auditing and capacity building around Cyber ecosystem. “The most important aspect of the policy would be to address the cyber threat and synergies between various stake holders,” he added. India is 2^nd most cyber attacked country in the world.

As India has become one of the most data usage country in the world, there has been a considerable increase in the cyber risk vulnerability, which according to panelists could impact the GDP growth of the Country, if not addressed. The other important point of discussion during the Summit was the ownership of the data. “As an Organisation, we are exposed to appoxmately 30 million people on daily basis, of which we collect date of about 3 million people and also we have to manage the data of 1.4 million employees for over 45-50 years. While we have to provide service and also are required to manage the data, it becomes extremly difficult for us to manage both. Moreso, when ownership and privacy of the data is concerned,” said Mr. Vijay K. Devnath, GM (I&S), MDMS & CISO), Centre for Railway Information System (CRIS), Government of India.

“The issue of who own the data and where should data be kept has become an important issue,” said Shashi Dharan, Managing Director, Bharat Exhibitions.

According to Mr. Amit Sharma, Advisor (Cyber) & Director at the Office of Secretary, Department of Defence the Government of India has put in place various checks and balances to protect the data getting vunerable to cyber leakage. “The ownership of data is very critical. There are discussion happening around this aspect on international level. Our government proactive on this front,” informed Mr. Sharma.  

On the issue of CSO (Cyber Security Officer), Mr. Sharma said, “If this issue would have come up five years back, then we were putting make a headway. However, today at least every department of Government of India has a CSO.” Supporting Mr. Sharma statement on CSO, Mr. R. Shakaya, DDG (Security Assurance) DoT, Ministry of Communications said, “Besides the Government departments, CSO has become part of many private sectors also, like Banking and Telecommunication industries. However, a lot needs to be done on this front so as to reach a more secure cyber environment.” 

The common concern amongst the top cyber security experts gathered at the 6^th  International Summit on Cyber Security India, 2020, was that the country was extremely vulnerable to cyber-attacks and how to put the counter measures in place.

Cyber Security India Summit 2020 was sponsored by IPification, Arcserve, Forcepoint, RamoGnee Technologies and Astrikos Consulting and Supported by Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology (MeitY), COAI and ITU-APT Foundation of India.