Cyber crime continues to rise, 78 sites hacked this year: Milind Deora

New Delhi: A total of 78 government websites were hacked and 16,035 incidents related to spam, malware infection and system break-in were reported this year so far, Minister of State for Communications & IT Milind Deora said.

"As per the information reported to and tracked by Indian Computer Response Team (CERT-In), a total number of 308, 371 and 78 government websites were hacked during the years 2011, 2012 and 2013 (up to June) respectively," Deora said in a written reply to the Lok Sabha.

The Minister said 16,035 security incidents related to scanning, spam, malware infection, denial of service and system break-in including that of government, Defence and public sector undertakings were reported up to June this year.

The number of security breach incidents stood at 13,301 in 2011 and 22,060 in 2012, he added.

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"It has been observed that attackers are compromising computer systems located in different parts of the world and use masquerading techniques and hidden servers to hide the identity of actual system from which the attacks are being launched. It is difficult to attribute the origin of cyberattacks," he added.

In order to detect and prevent cyberattacks, the government has taken various measures including release of a National Cyber Security Policy 2013, which addresses protection of information and infrastructure in cyber space and building capabilities to prevent cyberthreats.

"All new government websites and applications are to be audited with respect to cybersecurity prior to their hosting," Deora said.

It has also been mandated that all government websites to be hosted on infrastructure of NIC, ERNET or any other secure infrastructure service provider in the country.

The Information Technology Act, 2000 provides legal framework to address the issues connected with cyberattacks, Deora added.

PTI