The government has launched a malware analysis centre called the Cyber Swachhta Kendra (CSK) to promote cyber security.
The centre, launched by ministry of electronics and information technology (MEITY), will work with different Internet service providers (ISPs), academia, banks and anti- virus companies in the industry in providing citizens with digital tools that will protect data by removing the malicious content on their computers, laptops and mobile phones.
“India is going to take a lead in the digitization process of the world. We have joined the distinguished club of countries that already have malware cleaning systems for the use of its citizens. As of now, we have 13 banks & Internet service providers using this facility. With the expanding digital footprint in the country, I see a surge in start-ups in the area of cyber security by the end of the year,” said Ravi Shankar Prasad, minister of electronics and information technology.
All alerts related to any malicious content penetrating into any user’s system will first be disseminated from the Kendra to the different ISPs who will further pass it onto the users through messages or email notifications. Based on these alerts, users can visit the CSK website, to download the various tools to clean their systems for free.
With an estimated budget of Rs90 crore, the centre has been developed by the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) of the ministry along with Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC), Quick Heal Technologies and Amrita University.
“Security is too critical an area for a single stakeholder to take control of, that’s why so many entities are part of this initiative and all of them need to bring their combined capabilities together,” said Aruna Sundarajan, secretary, MEITY.
The various digital solutions created are USB Pratirodh for usage of USB mass storage devices, App Samvid for Microsoft software-based operating systems and M-Kavach for mobile devices.
