Time for Reboot: Centre Asks All Ministries, Depts to Junk Outdated IT Equipment to Counter Cyberattacks

The Centre has asked all ministries and departments to get rid of obsolete and outdated operating systems and IT apparatus, warning that such equipment could be susceptible to serious cyberattacks.

Secretary of the ministry of electronics and information technology (MeitY), Alkesh Kumar Sharma, has written a letter to all secretaries regarding these new directions. News18 has a copy of this letter. “The use of out-to-date operating systems and IT equipment must be discontinued as it makes the sensitive government IT system susceptible to cyberattacks,” Sharma has warned.

There have been increasing cases of cyberattacks. News18 earlier reported that as per government data presented in Parliament in April, as many as 641 Twitter accounts, e-mails, and websites related to the government were hacked in the last five years. In June, more than 500 websites of government entities and private institutions in India were hacked following the Prophet controversy.

The MeitY secretary’s latest letter refers to the review of equipment like servers, personal computers, printers, UPS, laptops, notebooks and tablets, data communication equipment, LAN switches, routers, and data cables. The latest letter of the MeitY secretary to all secretaries says with the increased digitisation and online governance, cybersecurity has become an integral and important part of governance.

“The hackers exploit weaknesses such as ignorance or non-adherence to security procedures, flaws in processes or vulnerabilities in technology (both hardware and software),” the secretary’s letter says. All ministries have been asked to determine the lifespan of IT equipment, both hardware and software, as declared by the original equipment manufacturers (OEMs). “This will help in maintaining cyber risk-free environment in government ministers/departments,” the letter says.

News18 reported on Friday that officials of all ministries and departments under the central government are undergoing a comprehensive training programme on cyber hygiene so that they are well-equipped to tackle common cybercrimes such as phishing, financial fraud, hacking, etc.

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