87,050 cyberattacks on govt organisations in two years

India had a total of 11,58,208 cyber security incidents in 2020-21. Cyber security attacks increased to 12,13,784 till October 2021, the Minister of State for Electronics and Information, Rajeev Chandrashekhar, informed the Rajya Sabha. 

Out of the total cases, about 87,050 cyber security incidents were against government organisations in the last two years. 

Data protection is a rising concern, especially for governments that are more vulnerable to online attacks.

Data protection is a rising concern, especially for governments that are more vulnerable to online attacks. And with growing digitalisation in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, security experts have warned that cyber attacks would only grow in prominence.

Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) is mandated to track and monitor cyber security incidents in India. CERT-In conducts regular training programmes for network/system administrators and Chief Information Security Officers (CISOs) to secure the IT infrastructure and mitigate cyber-attacks, the minister said in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha. 

Fifteen and 17 training programs were conducted, covering 708 and 4801 participants between 2020 and 2021 (till October 2021), respectively.

Further, the ministry said that the government had formulated a Cyber Crisis Management Plan for countering cyber-attacks and cyber-terrorism. 

"Cyber security mock drills are conducted regularly in Government and critical sectors. 61 such drills have so far been conducted by CERT-In where 600 organisations from different States and sectors participated," the ministry said.

"To deal with cybercrimes in a coordinated & comprehensive manner, Government has launched the online National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal to enable citizens to report complaints pertaining to all types of cybercrimes with special focus on cyber crimes against women and children," the government said.