Computer Security Incident Response Team (CSIRT): Govt mulls nodal body to secure power grids

Source: The post is based on the article “Govt mulls nodal body to secure power grids” published in Livemint on 25th November.

What is the News?

The Government of India is planning to set up a Computer Security Incident Response Team (CSIRT) at the Central Electricity Authority to avert cyber attacks on the country’s power grid.

What is the Computer Security Incident Response Team(CSIRT)?

CSIRT is being created to avert cyber attacks on the country’s power grid.

It will act as an arm of the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team, or CERT-In CERT-In but will remain under the administrative control of the Central Electricity Authority.

The officers will be recruited through the Combined Engineering Services Examination conducted by UPSC. The officers will be trained to detect cyber security incidents, create awareness among stakeholders, monitor incidents and respond accordingly.

Why is CSIRT being created?

Red Echo, a hacker group affiliated with the Chinese government, targeted the control rooms managing critical power grids in 2021. The campaign could have caused widespread blackouts, but the Chinese hackers failed to break into the systems and no data breach was detected. 

To monitor and prevent such cyber attacks on power grids, CSIRT is being created.