Mar 26 :Government says Cyber terrorism and cyber attacks have emerged as new threats with a capability to paralyse critical infrastructure of the country.
Addressing the CBI’s Conference on International Police Cooperation against Cyber Crime in New Delhi on Thursday Cabinet secretary said the damage of such attacks could range from a simple shut down of a computer system to complete paralysis of a significant portion of critical infrastructure.
Mr. K M Chandrasheker cited the Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack on Estonia in May 2007 which led to crippling of banking institutions and blocked the connectivity of the offices of President, Prime Minister, Parliament.
He said the government has taken several key initiatives to enhance security of cyber space. They include amendment in the Indian Information Technology Act 2000 and the setting up of Computer Emergency Response Team. He asserted that the system operates round the clock and is actively engaging its users with early warning alerts and advisories
Speaking at the Conference organised in collaboration with the Council of Europe, CBI Director Ashwani Kumar said, Terrorists’ attacks at Mumbai in November 2008 and previous such instances are proof as to how technology has been misused by the terrorists to commit crime and attack the sovereignty of the nation.
The CBI director said Voice over Internet Protocol was used for free communication by people had been used by terrorists to bypass governmental regulatory controls.