Cyber Incidents Response Team to bolster Navy now

Indian Navy has followed the Army in creating Cyber Incidents Response Team (CIRT) under a rear admiral to keep in check malicious attacks of the kind the US military agencies are facing from Chinese cyber warriors. A navy source says: “We have a fairly robust system in place. The CIRT keeps a running check on our systems for possible breaches.”

Army was the first amongst the Indian armed forces to set up the army cyber group in 2005 for indulging in active defense and limited offensive operations. The system was built by a retired signals office commanding-in-chief Lieutenant General Devinder Kumar, who is extremely reticent about talking about the set-up, which is his creation. Navy’s is of lesser vintage.

The navy’s staffing of the cyber security arm is through its intake of software engineers trained in premier educational institutions of the country. The CIRT interfaces with the civilian agencies like the Computer Emergency Response Team – India (CERT-IN) in case the situation demands such intervention.

Otherwise, the CIRT does <g data-gr-id="43">regular</g> audit of the navy’s computer systems. In fact, as a navy source says: “The computers on which sensitive matters are handled are not connected to the internet; do not have slots for pen drives, computer discs or any other external device.” Cyber directorate of the navy has stipulated, a computer is placed in a public space for the contingency of any of the staffers having to access the internet. 

The person/s who need to use that computer have to seek a clearance from the rear admiral, who is also the assistant chief of naval staff for foreign cooperation and intelligence. Considering that the navy also has a larger dimension of communicating with its vessels at sea, a source says: “We have our security overlays when communicating with ships at sea. These days we have satellite communication.” Navy has its own dedicated satellite, Rukmini, that send out communications to the ships in encrypted form.