National Security Council Secretariat sets baseline requirement for cybersecurity audits

The National Security Council Secretariat (NSCS) has prepared a "baseline requirement" for cybersecurity audits in view of increasing threat of cyberattacks on critical infrastructure, particularly originating from China.

"For high-risk information structure, cyberattacks on infrastructure will have an impact on national security, public health and safety, economy and critical operations of the government," it said.

The NSCS said the guidelines will be "mandatorily applicable" to owners and regulators of critical information infrastructure, including those responsible for ensuring its protection. The guidelines entail six stages - management, protection, detection, response, recovery and lessons learnt.


According to the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In), 11,58,208 cybersecurity incidents were reported in 2020 while 607,220 attacks have been recorded this year till June.