DoT, telecom majors working on steps to curb AI-led cyberattacks

Three to four rounds of discussions held with telecom operators and strategic infrastructure providers to strengthen network security

The Department of Telecommunications has been holding discussions with infrastructure providers, including Indian telecom majors, to strengthen cyber security measures to better protect critical infrastructure amid increasing threats from artificial intelligence (AI)-backed  cyberattacks.  

Several rounds of detailed discussions with private and public sector carriers — Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Idea and Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited — as well as other strategic critical infrastructure providers, have been held to take stock of the protective mechanisms already in place and measures to further strengthen them, said people familiar with the development.  

“All strategic assets of any country, be it government or non-government, it is extremely important for us to safeguard them. We’ve had three or four meetings with telcos, they’re building firewalls and safeguards, and the systems are pretty robust. So far, we’ve not noticed any untoward incident happening at any telco,” a senior official said, asking not to be named as the discussions with the telecom service providers were not public.  

The discussions come amid heightened concerns over cyberattacks targeting critical infras­t­ructure. India’s key cybersecurity agency Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) has flagged the growing use of AI, primarily autonomous AI agents, to identify and exploit vulnerabilities to undertake sophisticated attacks.  

India’s telecom systems are among the busiest in the world, carrying data for over 1 billion users, as well as thousands of large enterprises. The telecom network is also the backbone of billions of financial transactions, taking place on a daily basis, including Unified Payments Interface (UPI) and banking and, therefore, are most sensitive to such attacks. CERT-In has recently issued several advisories warning aga­inst AI agents going rogue and cases of open-source agentic AI tools being used to survey and attack.  

The agency also issued Artificial Intelligence Security Auditing Guidelines earlier this week on November 4, putting in place a framework for assessing the security and governance of AI systems deployed by government agencies and private companies. CERT-In has also gained access to Anthropic’s Mythos AI model for using its capabilities, PTI reported on November 4, which will enable it to leverage the model’s capabilities in identifying cyber vulnerabilities and strengthening its response to emerging cyber threats. Mythos is available only to a small group of trusted organisations. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India proposed an AI governance framework for telecom networks, which includes covering risk classification and reporting of serious AI-related incidents, among other guidelines.