Central government employees of India will receive a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) on Cyber Attacks by this month and suggesting measures to take before a cyber attack and steps to mitigate risks, if in case, an organization becomes a victim to a digital attack.
Amid tensions from the government of China, the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi led government has urged public sector units and ministries to increase vigil on their computer networks against foreign nation intrusions.
A few of the suggested SOPs include signing out of the email accounts, switching off computers when not in use and updating passwords of a minimum 14-18 characters and stop copy pasting usernames and passwords on online services.
The guidance will be issued till February next year, after which employees need to face a disciplinary action for failing to follow a basic cyber hygiene.
Recent cyber-attack on AIIMs suggest the incident took place as an employee/s failed to follow the basic cyber hygiene leading to data theft.
CERT-India has also suggested certain steps after being targeted by an attack and that includes disconnect infected systems from network and lodge an FIR with the police and the IT Ministry (only in case of large organization having over 100 employee count), evaluating the infection scope and the way of intrusion and use a business continuity plan to recover quick from the incident.
NOTE– In July this year, Norton issued a security report that suggests India faced about 18 million cyber threats in the first quarter of 2022.
