Cyber Security official says no internet shutdown in India

According to a top government cybersecurity official on Friday India will not face any internet shutdown, dismissing fears of an internet blackout in the country amid reports of a global shutdown.

Russia Today had earlier reported that internet users across the globe may witness worldwide network failures because of routine maintenance of key domain servers over the next 48 hours.

NDTV quoted National Cyber Security Coordinator, Gulshan Rai, who said, "All arrangements are in place and there will be no internet shutdown in India as is being circulated in the media."

The Russia Today report said that the Internet Corporation of Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN will carry out maintenance work during the 48 hours by changing the cryptographic key that helps protect the internet's address book or the Domain Name System (DNS).

This step was taken in order to counter the rising incidents of cyber attacks, Russia Today quoted ICANN as saying. However, ICANN later clarified that the report had a "clickbait" headline and that the impact on users would be minimum.

As reported by NDTV an ICANN spokesperson said, "Unfortunately, that story carries a headline that is a click bait. There will be minimal impact to users. Note that data analysis suggests that more than 99% of users whose resolvers are validating will be unaffected."

The spokesperson moreover said, "It has been about 20 hours since the rollover and based on all the information we have, everything is going smoothly. There have been only a small handful of reports of issues suspected to be caused by the rollover. In all cases, it appears the impact was minor and the issues were quickly resolved."