Nadella to train Govt info security officers

New Delhi: In an attempt to train Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) to handle cyber frauds of international level, the government has roped in Microsoft's Chief Executive Officer Satya Nadella to impart world-class training to all the CISOs appointed for cybersecurity in all central ministries, departments and institutions.

According to government officials, the training would begin from the second week of November, in which security officers would be taught about latest trends in cybersecurity by international level specialists from Microsoft, TCS and Red Hat Linux.

According to a senior official in Ministry of Information Technology, Microsoft's CEO Satya Nadella would lead the training programme. During the training session, all the CISOs would be trained to deal with cyber threat cases by providing information on the steps taken by the three companies to prevent various levels of viruses, cyber attacks and hacking. The government had decided to appoint CISO in every central ministry, department and institution in March this year for the information security management system (ISMS). The thrust of the move was to protect all the ongoing plans under Digital India, including digital transactions which have increased manifold after the demonetisation.

Taking a note of reports of the increase in cyber attacks on ATMs and Ransomware cyber attacks after demonetisation, the government has tightened cyber security. Notably, the Reserve Bank of India has already alerted all banks to overhaul cybersecurity system.

According to a senior official, post demonetisation, the country has witnessed a huge surge in digital transactions. "Every month, about 44 crore digital transactions worth Rs 1.5 lakh crore is taking place. As per latest data of October 11, 2017, 18.58 crore digital transactions worth of Rs 54,000 crore have taken place," the official said, adding that in September, there were 43.64 digital transactions of Rs 1.48 lakh crore.

The earlier figures are almost identical, which increased manifold till July after the demonetisation. "However, compared to the previous year's ban, 15 per cent of the digital transaction has increased and this figure is going to increase steadily. Given that the Centre is digitising all the services, so cybersecurity is most important," the official said.

"The government is serious on the issue of cybersecurity and it is taking all necessary steps to put a check on cyber frauds. The prime objective of the move is to make government officials aware of all global cyber frauds. It's so that the government has instructed to link all income tax returns, bank accounts, mobile numbers with Aadhaar," the official said.

The government has also asked all the states to create a post of CISOs to look after the cyber threats. The government is also aiming to utilise the services of cybersecurity officers to 'detect' tax evaders and put a check on black-money.