The National e-Governance Division (NeGD) recently held the 30th Chief Information Security Officers (CISO) Deep-Dive training programme at the Indian Institute of Public Administration in New Delhi. This forms part of the Cyber Surakshit Bharat initiative, which aims to bolster cybersecurity within governmental departments and organizations.
Cyber Surakshit Bharat: An Overview
Launched by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) in 2018, the Cyber Surakshit Bharat initiative is a comprehensive scheme designed to fortify cyber defences across government departments. Its mission is twofold: to educate on the threat posed by cybercrime, and to build-up the capacities of Chief Information Security Officers (CISOs) and frontline IT officials. This is achieved through training programmes like the CISO Deep-Dive.
This programme represents a unique cooperative effort between the government and an industry consortium. Working on a public-private partnership model, it brings together people and organisations from various sectors for a singular purpose – cybersecurity.
Participants and Objectives
The initiative targets a range of participants, from central and state/UT government officers, to those from subordinate agencies and PSUs. This encompasses public sector banks, insurance companies, and even officers from the technical wings of police and security forces.
The objectives are clear: to provide knowledge of cyber-attacks; to expose participants to the latest technologies for safeguarding data; to share best practices, frameworks, guidelines, related to cybersecurity; to facilitate decision-making in their respective functional areas; and to ultimately build resilient e-infrastructure that can benefit individual organizations and citizens.
Training and Partnerships
NeGD, an arm of the Ministry of Electronics and IT, handles the logistics of organizing these training programmes. On the other hand, the technical support is provided by an industry consortium that consists of several major players, including Microsoft, IBM, Intel, Palo Alto Networks, E&Y, and Dell-EMC. Knowledge partners from the Government side include the National Informatics Centre (NIC), Computer Emergency Response Team-India (CERT-In), and Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (CDAC).
Relevance to UPSC Civil Services Examination
This initiative is particularly relevant in the context of the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) Civil Services Examination. For instance, a previous year’s question in the Prelims sought to test candidates’ knowledge on cyber-attacks. The question involved identifying ‘WannaCry, Petya and EternalBlue’, which are all forms of ransomware – a type of malicious software that threatens users by locking access, demanding a ransom to restore it. This only underlines the importance of understanding cyber security issues in today’s digital landscape.
The Cyber Surakshit Bharat initiative, with its training programmes and collaborations, represents a significant step towards achieving and maintaining robust cybersecurity standards in India.