Implementing National Cyber Security Policy is a challenge: Sibal

New Delhi:With an aim to protect informationand build capabilities to prevent cyber attacks, thegovernment today released the National Cyber Security Policy 2013 to safeguard both physical and business assets of thecountry.

"...policy is a framework document and it gives you abroad outline of what our vision is...the real task or thechallenge is the operationalisation of this policy," Minister of Communications and IT Kapil Sibal said while releasing thepolicy here.

Sibal said the critical infrastructure such as air defencesystem, power infrastructure, nuclear plants,telecommunications system have to be protected otherwise it may create economic instability."...air defence system, power infrastructure, nuclearplants, telecommunications system will all have to beprotected to ensure there is no disruption of the kind thatwill destabilise the economy... instability in cyber spacemeans economic instability no nation can afford economicinstability, therefore it is essential not just to have apolicy but to operationalise it," Sibal said.

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[caption id="attachment_921515" align="alignleft" width="380"] Representative image. Reuters.[/caption]

The cyber policy was necessary in the wake of possibleattacks from state and non-state actors, corporate houses andterrorists as the Internet world has no geographical barriersand was anonymous in nature.The Minister said there will be multiple places fromwhere cyber war could take place, it will involve individuals,sections of society, businesses, terrorists, drug dealers andthose who want to generate violence.

He added it will not be able to point out to a particularcountry to say the source of the attack because it willdifficult in the cyberspace to figure it out."In the ultimate analysis, we have to develop globalstandards because there is no way that we can have a policywithin the context of India which is not connected with the rest of the world because information knows no territorialboundaries," Sibal added.

He said everything today is cross border, we have tocorroborate to find what is that meeting ground which allowsthe citizens to be empowered and at the same time ensures thatnation is safe."We don't know who attack our systems, so we have toourselves secure our systems," Sibal added.In order to create a secure cyber ecosystem, the policyplans to set up a national nodal agency to coordinate allmatters related to cyber security in the country with clearlydefined roles and responsibilities. It plans to establish a mechanism for sharinginformation, identifying and responding to cyber securityincidents and for cooperation in restoration efforts.

PTI