Government keen on keeping Natgrid safe from hackers

CERT-IN given the job of protecting databases of the concerned agencies

With the National Intelligence Grid (Natgrid) and Crime and Criminal Network and Systems (CCTNS) coming closer to reality, the government is concerned over the fact that networking the databases of multiple agencies would also expose them to greater cyber-attack risks.

The Ministry of Home Affairs in an internal document pointed out that the country’s security apparatuses had so far relatively low exposure to cyber-attacks, as they had not been well networked. “However, with the development of Natgrid, Mac (Multi-Agency Centre) and NCTC (National Counter Terrorism Centre), the risks would increase,” it noted.

The Natgrid,  a brainchild of Home Minister P Chidambaram, is going to be an integrated national security database, which will facilitate quick access to information on any individual, like details of his or her banking, insurance, immigration, income tax, telephone and usage of Internet. The Cabinet Committee on Security gave in-principle approval to the project on June 6 last.

The Natgrid, modelled after the US system of intelligence sharing, will have access to 21 categories of databases, like railway and air travels, income tax, bank account details, credit card transactions and visa and immigration records. Initially, 11 agencies, including the Central Bureau of Investigation, National Investigation Agency, Intelligence Bureau, Research and Analytical Wing and the special branches of police in the states will get access to it.

The National Crime Records Bureau is also working on a project called Automated Multimodal Biometric Identification System (Ambis)—a database of fingerprints, face profile and all other details of the criminals and terrorists—which police stations and law-enforcing agencies across the country will be able to access by 2013. The Ambis is set to be executed in the next phase of the Rs 2000-crore CCTNS project.

Though the Natgrid and CCTNS are likely to help address the problem of coordination among the security agencies and make it easier for them to share information, the MHA is now trying to focus on safeguarding the systems against cyber-attacks, as networking of databases would make them more vulnerable to hacking.

A senior government official told Deccan Herald that the CERT-IN (India’s Computer Emergency Response Team) had been asked to help strengthening the safeguard of the Natgrid and CCTNS against cyber-attacks. Amid growing collaboration between India and US in the field of cyber-security, the CERT-IN would soon clinch a deal with its American counterpart US-CERT. The MHA is also understood to be open to seek help from the US Federal Bureau of Investigations, which too maintains a huge database of biometric profiles of criminals and terrorists.

Sources said that as many as 117 government websites, including that of the CBI, had come under cyber-attacks in the first half of 2011, mostly by Chinese hackers.

The CERT-In carried out an analysis on the web server logs of the hacked websites and suggested certain steps and countermeasures to the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology to patch the existing vulnerabilities and strengthen the cyber-security shield.