India has mandated that all government ministries and departments secure their websites with proper certification. This directive follows the hacking of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) website by a group calling themselves the "Pakistani Cyber Army."
The National Informatics Centre has been instructed to host websites only after these ministries and departments provide security certification and comply with government guidelines, according to India's Press Information Bureau (PIB).
The CBI website was defaced by hackers over a week ago. The attackers claimed their actions were in retaliation for similar hacks on Pakistani websites. A CBI spokeswoman stated that the site would undergo a thorough security audit and fix all vulnerabilities before being restored. Importantly, the agency's internal IT systems remained uncompromised.
As of Wednesday morning, the CBI site had not yet been restored.
India's Minister of State for Communications and IT, Sachin Pilot, convened a meeting with key government officials to review measures needed to enhance the security of government websites and overall cyberspace.
Ministries and departments are now required to regularly audit their websites, especially after significant updates or changes to website applications.
The government's Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) has empaneled over 50 IT security auditors to examine the infrastructure of these organizations. CERT-In also provides a crisis management plan to prevent and address website attacks, as reported by PIB.
