Brajesh goes cyber, to snoop on e-mails as NIB chief

National Security Adviser Brajesh Mishra is now set to wear an e-hat — he will head the National Information Board (NIB) — set up ...

National Security Adviser Brajesh Mishra is now set to wear an e-hat — he will head the National Information Board (NIB) — set up to oversee e-security of the country. The NIB will consist of the three defence chiefs, the Cabinet secretary, the IT secretary, RAW chief and will draw on the expertise of all intelligence organisations like the Intelligence Bureau, CBI and Enforcement Directorate.

The NIB will be the nodal agency for interception of SMS, e-mails and cyber-related crime. The growing threat of cyberterrorism specially after e-mails were used just before the attack on the Parliament in December 2001 has raised the hackles of security agencies. The most recent instance of threat to government cybersites was noticed during the Pravasi Bharatiya Diwas conference with NRIs being held in the capital. Agencies found that government sites were under attack via the internet. It was traced to three Pakistani nationals in Hong Kong using the internet medium to distort the government websites.

Efforts are now underway to have bilateral agreements with foreign countries to deal with cybercrimes committed from foreign lands but affecting India. For this, the government requires concerted efforts to deal with protocol management specifically for cybercrimes necessitating the need to set up an organisation like NIB.

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The move to set up the NIB comes close on the heels of the government setting up a Cybersecurity Emergency Response Team (CERT) which will serve as a nodal agency for tracking cybercrimes across the country and digging their origins. CERT is expected to be up and working by April.

The CERT will look at the vulnerability of government electronic systems — e-governance, e-learning and e-security — to threats from hackers and denial of service rights through cyber techniques. The Prime Minister’s Office has already created five committees to go into various security issues.

This will facilitate security agencies to zero-in on the originator of messages. Of late, there have been crimes using the internet or SMS, involving hawala transactions between Mumbai and Dubai.

Instead of enacting a new law to deal with the misuse of SMS and e-mails, the government plans to issue executive orders to bring cybercafes and SMS messages under the existing laws to tackle crime.

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CERT India will have a counterpart in Bangalore, Mirror CERT, which will be the back-up for the Delhi operations and be on stand-by in case the former fails. CERT will also have an advisory role, functioning as a consultant to private firms to get their cyber security systems in place to prevent hacking and data tampering.

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