The Rs 1000 crore National Cyber Security Coordination Centre (NCCC) is finally up and running—at least the first phase of it. The centre has been tasked with monitoring inbound and outbound internet traffic and cyber security threats. Currently managed by CERT-IN, it will monitor cyber traffic at the ISP level and will help in preventing large-scale cyber attacks.
The plan to have a NCCC was first floated in 2012 and was approved in 2013. It was envisaged that the NCCC would ensure near real-time threat assessment and situational awareness which would help in analysis and generation of timely alerts and periodic reports.
The body will also get information from multiple agencies such as banks and telecom service providers. With enormous amount of data under its fold, the agency will also use data analytics tools to make sense of the loads of information coming from across sectors.
"What we had heard was that this will be the one stop point pertaining to cybercrimes. But when cybercrime has already seen its most fertile phase after demonetisation, this body is coming too late. I am not sure about the efficacy of this centre because India is not a signatory to any of the global cyber crime treaties. How do we get information from ISPs outside India?" says Pavan Duggal, an expert cyber lawyer.
According to government's own data, 27,482 cyber security breaches have happened in India this year (till June). The number was 44,679 in 2014 which went up to 49,455 in 2015 and then 50,362 in 2016. The types of cyber security incidents include phishing, scanning/probing, website intrusions and defacements, virus/malicious code, ransomware, denial of Service attacks, etc.
