After months of waiting, the Union Government is finally coming out with a National Botnet Cleaning and malware Analysis Centre in a month.

With the number of cyber attacks going up significantly and hackers taking down computers, the government had announced establishment of such centres about two years ago.

“The centre will be operational in a month. Hackers are taking control of computers building Botnets and this centre would help the victims clean the systems,” Ajay Kumar, Additional Secretary (Ministry of Electronics and IT, Govt of India), said. Botnets are formed as hackers lured people to download a link or a file that downloads malicious software into the computers. The infected computer becomes part of a botnet that virtually is commanded by hackers.

Addressing the Cyber Security Conclave here on Tuesday, he said the government would also set up a National Cyber Coordination Centre with ecosystem partners to predict problems and protect the IT infrastructure from cyber attacks. “Tender process is on and we expect the first phase to be ready by March next,” he said.

The conference was organised by the Society for Cyberabad Security Council and Kenes Exhibitions.

Stating that data consumption had gone up significantly, he said the country was ranked fourth after China, the US and Brazil in download of apps by clocking download of 700 crore apps. This was growing at a rate of 92 per cent annually. The biggest challenge, he said, was posed by malware embedded in hardware.

As the number of connected devices is going up, there was a need to create awareness on security. “We must teach the children. We must include cyber security chapters in elementary education itself,” he said.

The government had set up a Mother Fund to fund venture capital funds that invest in cyber security start-ups.