Dragon Targets Telecom to Breach Security, Firewall Ready in 6 Months

Underlining the need of such directive, a confidential report of National Security Council Secretariat (NSCS) says that India is among top three countries in the world facing cyber-attacks. "A sum of Rs 1.24 lakh crore was lost due to cyber-crime in India last year," the report reveals.

The NSCS report reviewed by IANS says that these cyber-attacks are usually committed through compromised hardware and software components of telecom networks. With increasing use of Internet of Things (IoT) devices, the risk seems to increase manifold and advent of 5G technologies will further increase the security concerns resulting from telecom networks. There is an urgent need to "maintain integrity of supply chain including electronic components for ensuring security against malware infection," the report adds.

In recent years, cross border hackers including Chinese agents have reportedly targeted important sectors including banking and finance with an aim to hurt India's financial operations. The report says that telecom is the critical underlying infrastructure for all sectoral information infrastructure of the country such as power, banking and finance, transport, governance and the strategic sector. Security breaches resulting in compromise of confidentiality or in disruption of infrastructure can have disastrous consequences. Therefore, new directives were required as telecom serves as a crucial sector from the national security perspective.

The NSCS invited key experts in telecom technology and nodal officers of concerned ministries on Thursday and held a brainstorming session for hours to formulate a strategy for implementing the National Security Directive on telecom sector. (IANS)

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