PM and National Security Council focus on cyber safety

New Delhi: The security of sensitive cyber networks was reviewed at a meeting of the National Security Council (NSC), headed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, against the backdrop of frequent attacks from hackers today.

The meeting is also understood to have discussed steps to be taken to protect the country's cyber architecture and designate organisations to counter such offensives, sources said.

The NSC is also understood have discussed designating certain intelligence agencies under the Defence Ministry for countering cyber offensives against the country, sources added.Defence Minister A K Antony and National Security Adviser Shivshankar Menon also attended the meeting.

The NSA had recently stated that government was "in final stages" of developing capabilities for providing protection against cyber-attacks.

"The government is in the process of putting in place the capabilities and the systems to deal with this new world of constant and undeclared cyber threat, attack, counter-attack and defence," Mr Menon had said, adding that "the government was preparing a whole-of-government cyber security architecture".

Several websites and networks of the Government have come under attack from different hacker groups across the globe.

During the Commonwealth Games in 2010, hackers had launched over 8,000 attacks on dedicated networks of the mega event but all of them were thwarted by designated agencies.

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