Worried by the security breach that affected nearly 32 lakh debit cards, the State government is has expediting work on its version of the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT). This week, the government finalised a vacant police estate in Ghatkopar for setting up the cyber crime agency’s administrative offices and headquarters.
The decision was taken following a meeting of the high power committee (HPC) headed by Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, who also holds the Home portfolio. Senior officials said construction will start once land is acquired and all encumbrances are removed. The card scam, which had been facilitated by a malware in Hitachi ATMs, had set alarm bells ringing in the State administration. The State's version will be an extended arm of the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In), will be an extended arm of CERT-In, which is the national nodal agency responsible for cyber security and works under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology.
The CERT will be set up by an HPC-appointed consortium of the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) and Railtel Corporation of India. The consultancy report for the Rs. 838-crore project, for which the government has already released half the funds, will cost around Rs. 2 crore.
Senior officials said C-DAC is likely to use the same technical know-how as GARUDA, India’s national grid computing initiative, and GIST (Graphics and Intelligence Based Script Technology).
Railtel, meanwhile, has expertise in creating a complex multimedia network based on broadband.
