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Protector seeks protection: Delhi cops to set up cyber security centre

The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has already approved the proposal, after the force expressed apprehension regarding cyber attacks by Pakistani and Chinese hackers

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Amid a vicious war against India's net security, the police force is in the process of setting up a Security Operation Centre (SOC), estimated to cost Rs 7.5 crore, to save itself from any such attack. The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has already approved the proposal, after the force expressed apprehension regarding cyber attacks by Pakistani and Chinese hackers.

A senior police officer said the Delhi Police intranet and data centre contain information related to terrorists, terror activities, and organised crimes, and "if hacked, it will be a threat to the national security".

The proposal, accessed by DNA, stated: "The possibility of cyber attack, hacking and unauthorised intrusion of data centre cannot be ruled out. There is an urgent need to set up a Security Operation Centre for detection and prevention of threats."

The police have also set up a Data Centre at the Kamala Market police station, having various Information and Technology equipment, Crime and Criminal Tracking Network and Systems (CCTNS), State Crime Record Bureau (SCRB), and the Finger Print Bureau (FPB).

Under the CCTNS project, all police stations and higher officers have been connected to the Data Centre to access the Core Application Software. The Centre is also connected with the cyber highway and other leases lines with connections at the police headquarters, higher authorities, National Informatics Center (NIC), Disaster Recovery Centre at Pune, and the National Data Centre at NIC in the city.

A senior police officer said that in December last year, cyber hackers from China, Pakistan, Singapore, the US, Russia, Dubai and Sweden had attacked Indian networks.

"Further, the online threat outfit Legion has prompted the MHA and Ministry of Finance to audit all information infrastructure, including the financial networks," the officer said. The police have registered cases against Legion but they have not been able to trace them, so far. The hacker group had given an open challenge to the Delhi Police, saying they were "not scared of the police".

In order to further analyse the vulnerability, a security expert from Deloitte was hired after the MHA approval. "As per the report submitted by the security expert, the current IT security posture has many vulnerable loopholes, which could be exploited at multiple points," the proposal stated.

With setting up the Security Operation Centre, the force can securely manage multiple platforms and devices centrally, enhance threat detection and response capabilities, monitor and track threats with advanced correlation of meta-data and predictive analytics, and also identify and manage the internal threat use cases. The security expert had recommended that the force should immediately opt for an outsourced centre and simultaneously start working on building up its own centre, which will be completed in the next eight months.

The police also sought opinion from the NIC, which suggested that the force should immediately establish the centre and develop the required skills to manage and operate it. "Further, the manpower at the centre should be of Delhi Police payroll for better operations in the long run," the NIC had suggested to the force.

Thereafter, the force prepared a detailed plan to set up the centre, which will be completed in three phases—first, outsourcing to Security Operation Centre service provider, second, designing, building, and managing the centre at Kamla Market Police Station, and third, identify resources, train and augment staff and transfer knowledge related to operations from the private player.

"The entire process will take 18 months and the estimated cost of the project is Rs 7.51 crore," said the officer, adding that the process to hire a Security Operation Centre service provider is on.

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