Sets deadlines for asset inventorization and SDC augmentation
STATE TIMES NEWS
JAMMU: Chief Secretary, Atal Dulloo, on Friday chaired a high-level meeting to review the progress achieved under the Cyber Security Action Plan being implemented across the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir.
The meeting was attended by Administrative Secretaries of all departments, Inspector General of Police (Crime), Commissioners of Jammu and Srinagar Municipal Corporations, Deputy Director General, NIC, Chief Executive Officer, JaKeGA, and other senior officers concerned.
At the outset, the Chief Secretary undertook a comprehensive review of the initiatives launched to strengthen the cyber security architecture of the UT. He assessed the status of decommissioning of redundant government websites and sought updates on the security audit of departmental portals, installation of Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) and Unified Endpoint Management (UEM) solutions in the offices of Heads of Departments, besides other measures aimed at safeguarding government digital infrastructure against emerging cyber threats. The Chief Secretary also reviewed the progress of key projects, including augmentation of the State Data Centre (SDC), operationalization of a Mini Security Operations Centre (SOC), adoption of official government e-mail IDs by employees, expansion of Government Drive usage, and capacity-building initiatives undertaken to promote cyber hygiene across departments. Stressing the need for a holistic and robust protection mechanism for IT assets, the Chief Secretary directed that all concerned Drawing and Disbursing Officers (DDOs) to complete the inventorization of IT assets on the e-SAM portal within the next one month to strengthen monitoring and security of government assets. He further instructed the NIC to prepare a comprehensive action plan within a month for augmenting the capacity of the State Data Centre and implementing additional cyber security measures to make the system foolproof across J&K. Earlier the IGP, Crime, Sujit Singh apprised the meeting about a comprehensive and in-depth assessment of cyber forensic capabilities at CICE, J&K. He added that the process involves a detailed examination of existing systems, emerging requirements and future-ready initiatives aimed at strengthening cyber forensic infrastructure across the UT. Singh further apprised that a structured three-phase approach has been adopted for this purpose. The first phase focuses on a thorough evaluation of technical specifications and proposed tools required for the establishment of CICE and Cyber Police Stations.
The second phase involves examination of these tools in the context of emerging cyber threats such as deep fakes, encrypted mobile communications and data breaches. The third phase entails comparative analysis and consultations regarding the latest tools available in the market. During the meeting, Secretary, Information Technology Department, Dr. Piyush Singla, gave detailed overview of the implementation of cyber security plan in J&K. He informed that the security audit of departmental websites has been completed, and 35 redundant websites have been decommissioned after due consultation with the concerned departments.