15.5 lakh cyber security incidents in 2019, 2020: Govt tells Lok Sabha

According to CERT-In, 3,94,499 and 11,58,208 cyber security incidents were observed during 2019 and 2020

Over 15.5 lakh cyber security incidents have been reported in the last two years and 11.58 lakh of them were recorded in 2020 alone, the Lok Sabha was informed on Tuesday.

Union Minister of State for Home G Kishan Reddy said the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) is serving as the national agency for responding to cyber security incidents in accordance with the provisions of Section 70B of the Information Technology Act, 2000.

According to the information reported to and tracked by the CERT-In, 3,94,499 and 11,58,208 cyber security incidents were observed during 2019 and 2020, respectively, he said in a written reply to a question.

Reddy said the CERT-In receives inputs from its situational awareness systems and threat intelligence sources about malware infections in networks of entities across sectors.

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Whenever any incident comes to the notice of CERT-In, it issues alerts and advisories to the entities concerned and sectoral Computer Emergency Response Teams (CERTs) for remedial measures, he said.

The Centre on Tuesday informed Parliament that over 15.5 lakh cyber security incidents have been reported in the last two years and 11.58 lakh of them were recorded in 2020 alone.

According to the information reported to and tracked by the CERT-In, 3,94,499 and 11,58,208 cyber security incidents were observed during 2019 and 2020, respectively, Union Minister of State for Home G Kishan Reddy informed Lok Sabha in his written reply.

The Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In), nodal agency for responding to cyber security incidents receives inputs from its situational awareness systems and threat intelligence sources about malware infections in networks of entities across sectors.

Also Read | India faced cyber attacks from foreign countries like China, Pakistan during lockdown: Centre

Whenever any incident comes to the notice of CERT-In, it issues alerts and advisories to the entities concerned and sectoral Computer Emergency Response Teams (CERTs) for remedial measures, he said.

Earlier the government had informed the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Information Technology that when India was under lockdown to curb the spread of Covid-19, the country faced a series of cyber attack attempts from foreign countries, particularly China and Pakistan.

The government also informed the panel that "Additional security controls were deployed for monitoring and blocking of attack attempts from these countries. Additional resources were deployed in shifts to meet these requirements round the clock. Security Audit initiated and completed using trusted networks (VPN) and restricted required port access
was opened for Audit."