By: T. Lalith Singh
To protect valuable data pertaining to different departments from the prying eyes of hackers, the Telangana State government has decided to create a line of defence and raise a cadre of cyber warriors.
The expertise of Dr. C.R. Rao Advanced Institute of Mathematics, Statistics and Computer Science (CR Rao AIMSCS) will be made available to train officials and staff, who will then be involved in protecting government data and information from intruders in the cyber world. A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) is to be signed by the IT Department with the institute on July 6 during the week-long Digital India activities.
“There is such vast valuable database of the government from Aadhaar, Civil Supplies to e-Seva and ‘Samagra Kutumba Survey’ (Household survey) that needs to be safeguarded. Any mischievous attempts to gain access to the database or efforts to tamper with them could be disastrous,” argues Jayesh Ranjan, IT Secretary.
Officials concede that though some safeguards are in place in the form of internal firewalls and so on, these are not strong enough to ward off cyber attacks. “The safeguards in place at present are not something that can not be pierced through and that is the problem,” points out an official. U. Yugandhar, Director (Management Services), CR AIMSCS, says the premier institute, with rich expertise, will extend training to government staff who will then serve as in-house protection for their respective department database. “Our expertise in cryptology and cyber security will be provided to various departments, including police personnel,” he said.
Mr. Ranjan says cyber warriors will be trained thoroughly on how hacking happens and how to prevent and defend the database from possible hacking attempts. “Apart from in-house personnel of departments, we are also considering possibilities of involving fresh graduates for training and details will be worked out in the implementation plan,” he said.
By: The Hindu