Govt clears setting up of National Cyber Coordination Centre

The centre is a critical component of India's plans to beef up its cyber security against hackers and espionage as well as to track terrorist activity online

Government has approved setting up of the National Cyber Coordination Centre (NCCC), which will screen online threats and coordinate with the intelligence agencies to handle issues related to the national security.

The centre, a critical component of India's plans to beef up its cyber security against hackers and espionage as well as to track terrorist activity online, is likely to start operations this year, a source said.

Government's cyber security arm Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) will be the main agency handling the establishment of NCCC. About Rs 800 crore had been sanctioned for this purpose, the source added.

The centre had received an in-principle approval from the government in May 2013.

Confirming the development a senior official said: "The Finance Ministry has approved it and now the way is clear for it (NCCC). The Prime Minister's Office has instructed the Communications and IT Ministry to fast track it."

Elaborating on its structure, the official said that the instructions are to create a group of cyber security professionals and experts who will look after the functioning of the centre and track illegal and terror activities online.

"This centre will have top experts from the field and it will be run like similar organisation in other countries such as the US, the UK, France, Germany, etc," the official added.

NCCC is expected to coordinate between intelligence agencies, specifically during network intrusions and cyber attacks. It's mandate may also include cyber intelligence sharing among agencies, another government official said.

The development comes at a time when cyber security assumes importance in the backdrop of growing network intrusions and hacking attempts on not just businesses but also on the government.

In February, the government said it has set up an experts committee to suggest ways and means to strengthen cyber security and the panel is likely to submit its report by May this year.

According to the official data, more than 700 government websites that are hosted under 'gov.In' and 'nic.In' domains have been hacked by cyber criminals since 2012.

As per CERT-In, 371, 189, 155 and 13 government websites were hacked during the year 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2015 (January), respectively.