India is considering a new national strategy to strengthen the country’s cybersecurity. There are current allegations that Chinese cyber intrusions may have affected the operations of one of the country’s major stock exchanges and the supply of electricity to the economic capital.
Rajesh Pant, a retired Indian lieutenant general and India’s national cybersecurity coordinator, said in an interview that the plan would coordinate the response of the ministries of Home affairs, information technology, defense and the National Center for Critical Information Infrastructure Protection, among others, in the event of an attack and develop an audit process, according to Bloomberg. A Cabinet-level security committee led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi will approve the plan.
He said authorities are investigating a series of recent suspicious cyber intrusions that may have been responsible for a power outage in Mumbai, the paralysis of the banking system and the failure of the National Stock Exchange. The relevant report is expected to be out in about two weeks.
Pant said, “We also want to know what happened.” Pant, who served in the Indian Army, now coordinates India’s cyber intelligence and reports to the prime minister’s office. He said the intrusions were likely malware and could not be classified as attacks without proper investigation.
U.S. firm Recorded Future said last week that at least one of the connection ports opened by an official Communist Party-funded hacking group in an Indian port’s cyber system was still active, and that Indian authorities blocked the Hackers‘ attempt to infiltrate the country’s power system. The company noted that this Red Echo group had been making attempts since at least the middle of last year, when Chinese and Indian troops were engaged in a bloody skirmish in the Himalayan region.
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