In the current climate of elevated risk created by the vulnerabilities of and threats to the Nations IT infrastructure, cyber security is not just a paperwork drill. Adversaries are capable of launching harmful attacks on IT systems, networks, and information assets. Such attacks could damage both the IT infrastructure and other critical infrastructures. Cyber security is slowly gaining wider adoption in many consumer products for a variety of reasons, due to appreciation of consequences of insecurity, the need for developing secure products, performance and cost penalties, improved user convenience, need for implementing and consistently maintaining security practices, and importance of assessing the value of security improvements. But consumer and enterprise concerns have been heightened by increasingly sophisticated hacker attacks and identity thefts, warnings of âcyber terrorism, and the pervasiveness of IT uses. Consequently, many in the industry and critical infrastructure organizations have come to recognize that their continued ability to gain consumer confidence will depend on improved software development, systems engineering practices and the adoption of strengthened security models and best practices.
In order to highlight the growing threat to information security in India and focus related actions, Government had set up an Inter Departmental Information Security Task Force (ISTF) with National Security Council as the nodal agency. The Task Force studied and deliberated on the issues such as
In line with the recommendations of the ISTF, the following initiatives have been taken by the Government