'Expert grp of academicians working on cyber security roadmap'

The government has set up an expert group of academicians and professionals to prepare a roadmap for effectively tackling cyber crime in India and give recommendations on its facets, Parliament was informed today.
The five-member Expert Study group comprises Rajat Moona, Director General, Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC); Professor Balakrishnan of Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru and Gulshan Rai, then Director General of Indian Computer Emergency Team (CERT-In).
Besides, it would include Professor Manindra Aggarwal of IIT Kanpur and Professor D Dass of International Institute of Information Technology, Bengaluru, Communications and IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said in a written reply to Rajya Sabha.

Kumar Alok, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Home Affairs is the convener of the Expert Group, he added.
"The terms of reference of the expert group are to prepare a roadmap for effectively tackling cyber crime in the country and give suitable recommendations on all its facets," the Minister said.
He added that the group will also recommend possible partnerships with public and private sector, NGOs, international bodies and international NGOs and any other special measures/steps with regard to tackling cyber crime.

Prasad said an expert committee, under the chairmanship of T K Vishwanathan, former Secretary, Law Commission, has been set up by Ministry of Home Affairs to study and examine the existing domestic cyber laws and international cyber legislations and recommend a roadmap with measures and amendments to the present laws for consideration of the government.

In a separate response, Prasad said at present there are 51 cyber security auditors/auditing organisations that are empanelled by CERT-In for carrying out cyber security and audit-related activities.
As of now, 5,053 websites/applications hosted on NIC infrastructure have been audited and cleared, 2,137 are under the process of security audit and 1,196 are due for security audits, the Minister added.
"Besides, nine government ministries/departments in the NIC domain have undergone security audit of network resources and systems during the period from January 1, 2014 to April 30, 2015," he said.
In addition, Standardisation Testing and Quality Certification (STQC) Directorate, as an empanelled auditor by CERT-In, has conducted 430 security audits in the last three years, covering organisations in government, public and private sectors.