IfG.CC -
Institute for eGovernment

Citizen Services portal unsafe, could lead to theft of credentials, say IT experts; PMC IT official confident civic sites secure, says will rectify this ‘one mistake’

Cyberattacks on government agencies emphasise the vulnerability and risks attached to the highly sensitive information stored, what it highlights even more is how exposed and easily accessible our personal information and data is to criminals. In an alarming revelation, a city-based software professional, who accessed the Pune Municipal Corporation’s (PMC) Citizen Services portal — wherein citizens avail services after providing personal and valuable data — has marked it unsafe. The PMC’s massive data of citizens is a goldmine for hackers and a massive alarm for people, if breached. This verily reminds one of the ransomware attack on the Pimpri-Chinchwad Smart City Project a few months ago that led to the encrypting of all files and application systems of 27 servers leading to a loss of Rs 5 crore.

The Centre for Internet and Society (CIS), a research thinktank that primarily focuses on issues of Internet governance, is pushing to revise the provisions of the Information Technology (IT) Act and make a stronger case for privacy laws and free speech in India, an issue that has caused widespread concern after the government tried to restrict access to more than a 100 websites last year with little justification.

“We want to revise the IT Act...that’s the toughest one and that’s not going to happen very soon because the government is treating it like an ego battle now. They no longer listen to the others,” said Sunil Abraham, executive director of CIS.

Villagers use such centres to get a rail ticket or a printout and to avail of e-services such as accessing land records or other government documents online. The ministry of communications and IT is asking for about Rs 2,800 crore more to set up 1,50,000 additional CSCs, but advisor to the prime minister Sam Pitroda says the scheme is not viable.

The Amritsar Municipal Corporation has installed 890 cameras under the Integrated Command Control Centre (ICCC) project of the Smart City so far. Under the project, 1,115 CCTV cameras are to be installed at 409 places in the city. Around 117 cameras have been linked with the control centre till date.

With the installation of these cameras, the authorities would be able to keep a vigil on the entire city. The project was started last year by Amritsar Smart City Limited. The centre has been set up at the head office of the MC at Ranjit Avenue. The Smart City authorities will spend Rs 91 crore on this project. The company working on this project claims that the project will be completed by June end.

Deputy Commissioner (DC) Vishesh Sarangal on Friday said the surveillance and traffic management project would be completed by December 15.

The DC said the work of installing 1,218 CCTV cameras at 188 locations was already underway in the city. He said these cameras would be connected with an integrated command and control centre (ICCC).

Providing technology-led security to urban India with the smart and safe City program

India has been on a digitization curve with Smart City, Digital India initiatives and citizen engagement through government-to-citizen (G2C) services. COVID-19 has highlighted that smart and safe cities are indispensable and great enablers of sustainability, socio-economic prosperity and security. We have seen many examples of smart cities delivering immense value to citizens through a score of digital services. . In the critical year of 2020, cities like Agra and Kakinada have rapidly collaborated with internet service providers to boost capacity for individuals as well as COVID response task-forces, set up centralised control rooms to monitor activities within the city and coordinate appropriate response between the city administration and local police force. They have also leveraged digital platforms to integrate one-stop-shop healthcare via teleconsultation and telemedicine.

Security and interoperability of Smart Cities in India are the key components of the success of Government of India's agenda of 100 Smart Cities.

Security and interoperability of Smart Cities in India are the key components of the success of Government of India's agenda of 100 Smart Cities.

The Smart City initiative by the Government of India is under various stages of development. According to various industry reports, by 2050, there will be a considerable population in India living in cities and two factors which are crucial for a sustainable smart city would be security and inter-operatibility of various platforms.

Why security and trust must be built-in throughout the entire lifecycle of technology deployment?

Gartner estimates that more than 20 billion devices are set to be connected to the internet by 2020. From consumer devices, power grids, to infrastructure, the hyper-connectivity, intelligence, and interoperability of cities are key drivers of smart city development. Yet, these elements are also expanding the exposure of our attack surfaces—also growing at an exponential and alarming rate.

Data breach incidents in India had been increasing day by day in India. Around 36 per cent of small businesses have been victims of data breaches in 2019. While data breaches threaten small companies with painful consequences, the survey by cybersecurity firm Kaspersky revealed that security measures taken by them to prevent such incidents are often insufficient.

Tamil Nadu chief minister Edappadi K Palaniswami unveiled three new IT policies on - artificial intelligence, blockchain and cybersecurity - aimed at addressing the emerging growth areas in IT industry and e-governance. Nicknamed ABC policies and said to be first of its kind in the country, CM Palaniswami launched them at the CII Connect 2020 event on Saturday.

The policy on artificial intelligence is aimed to provide a framework for inclusive, safe and ethical use of Artificial Intelligence in the government domain and to build fairness, equity, transparency and trust in AI assisted decision making systems.

"With increasing use of IT during government functions, it has become necessary to safeguard the information passed. Any disruption of this critical infrastructure will have impact on citizens, economy and in government services. In view of this, E-Security Policy has been introduced," an official press release said here on Monday.

The purpose of the policy, launched by Tamil Nadu IT Minister Poongothai on Monday at the Secretariat, is to define a set of minimum information security requirements that shall be met by all departments of the State government, it said.

“Government employees may have to Work from Home”, “Government planning 15-day Work from Home for its employees”, “Work from Home to be new normal in government offices” – these are a few of the many headlines reported by various print and web-based news agencies as the Government of India prepares itself for a long stand-off with the COVID-19 pandemic, writes Dr Yudhishthira Sapru, Senior Consultant, Chandigarh’s State eGovernance Mission, National eGovernance Division (NeGD), MeitY, Government of India

In the era of Digital India, almost all government organizations have IT resources which they use for public services. Various Central Ministries are already fully or partially using the eOffice platform (an online platform developed by National Informatics Centre (NIC) for electronic processing of files). A few State Governments have also some solution in place to process government files electronically. Others are also preparing themselves for a work from home (WFH) culture by taking their IT applications and processes out of the secured government environment.

The new operating system is being developed by the country's Defence Research & Development Organization (DRDO), Ravi Kumar Gupta, a spokesman for the DRDO, said.

The DRDO is a wing of the country's Ministry of Defence, and has about 50 laboratories specialized in developing technologies in a number of areas including aeronautics, armaments, electronics, combat vehicles, engineering systems, instrumentation, missiles, advanced computing and simulation, special materials, naval systems, life sciences, training, information systems and agriculture.

Minister of State for Telecommunications Sachin Pilot today said that the telecom operators should allow the government the lawful interception of BlackBerry's Messenger and enterprise services for the sake of the country's security and India should not take any risk as far as technology is concerned.

“The Home Minister has very clearly pointed out the requirements of the law enforcement agencies. We from the Department of Telecommunications have told the telecom operators that they have to provide us the right to lawful interception,” the minister said here today on the sidelines of an e-governance seminar.

Renu Challu, managing director, State Bank of Hyderabad, said cyber crimes were now occurring more during online transactions rather than at the systems end. With 16 million online banking customers in the country, most risk arises from people — both employees and customers, she said. Her prescription for cyber security was educating staff and customers.

The Ministry of Rural Development signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) in this regard with the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) in this regard here today.

An official press release said the Ministry and the UIDAI would cooperate and collaborate in the process to bring about better efficiency, transparency and accountability in the implementation of the right to wage employment guaranteed under the landmark Act.

A memorandum of understanding was signed between the Ministry and UIDAI in the presence of Rural Development Minister C P Joshi and UIDAI chairperson Nandan Nilekani for this.

The main objective of the programme, backed by the Department of Information Technology, Govt. of India, is to create awareness on issues related to information security for the target audience.

Extension of medical facilities under the Employees’ State Insurance (ESI) schemes has gone online in Jharkhand.

The ESI Corporation has launched biometric cards for its 1.75 lakh beneficiaries across the state. To start with, ESI Corp Regional Director RP Gupta launched the distribution of cards at Ranchi on Saturday.

"The discussions are still going on. We are not in the business of shutting down services," Minister of State for Communications Sachin Pilot said on the sidelines of an e-governance seminar here.

RIM officials began talks on access to encrypted data with the home and telecom ministry Thursday.

The government plans to spend a whopping Rs 10,000 crore, or three per cent of its annual plan budget, on e-governance projects in 2010-11, said an official from the Ministry of Information and Technology.

Despite this and the new amendment to the Information Technology (IT) Act that gives more teeth to the police if you sell sensitive data from your office, hack someone's Orkut profile or browse unauthorised porn sites, when it comes to securing cyber space, experts are still critical of India's efforts. The latest example is hacking of the Central Bureau of Investigation's (CBI)website.