Ajay Banerjee

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, June 24

In an effort to secure data, drawings and designs of military equipment that are with state-owned defence public sector undertakings, the Ministry of Defence has ended all reliance on foreign servers, it now hosts websites on Indian servers and has appointed cyber security officers in 87 such units across the country.

The work is sensitive in nature and any breach can compromise national security. The shipyards hold designs and drawing of leading warships. The Bharat Electronics Ltd makes almost all radars used on ground. The Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) hold designs and drawings of fighter jet Tejas, the Dhruv Helicopters and even their engine.

Similarly, an ordnance factory holds the design for under production artillery gun Dhanush. The Bharat Dynamics Ltd makes missiles like Akash.

As all these defence public sector undertaking and ordnance factories are increasingly relying on information technology, a sound, robust and resilient cyber-security infrastructure is the priority.

“We want cyber security standards on a par with global best practices. And to start with, we have done away with hosting websites on foreign servers. These are now entirely on Indian servers,” says Secretary Defence Production Ajay Kumar. Each of these 87 units, which are part of the Department of Defence Production, now have a Chief Information Security Officer who reports directly to the head of the department, this has been done to remove any bureaucratic red-tape. Each of the 41 ordnance factories have one officer who overlooks cyber security.