Shri Alkesh Kumar Sharma inaugurates G20 Cyber Security Exercise and Drill

There is an urgent need to work collectively to build joint resilience to counter cyber-attacks – Shri Alkesh Kumar Sharma

The Secretary, of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), Shri Alkesh Kumar Sharma inaugurated the G20 Cyber Security Exercise and Drill for more than 400 domestic and international participants under India’s G20 presidency, here yesterday.

The Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) conducted this Cyber Security Exercise and drill in hybrid mode (Physical and Virtual) where international participants from more than 12 countries joined through online mode while domestic participants from diverse sectors such as Finance, Education, Telecom, Ports & Shipping, Energy, IT/ITeS and others attended in-person as well as in virtual mode.

In his keynote address, Shri Alkesh Kumar Sharma highlighted the fact that cyber incidents are increasingly becoming sophisticated & disrupting affecting not only a nation but having a transnational impact and there is an urgent need to work collectively to build joint resilience to counter cyber-attacks.

The Special Secretary, Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), Ms Sivagami Sundari Nanda in her special address to the audience highlighted the need for the whole government response to counter cyber challenges including cooperation with Law Enforcement Agencies (LEA) at both domestic and international level.

The Director General, CERT-In, Dr Sanjay Bahl welcomed the participants and set up the context for the exercise and drill in his address. Commander Chris Waters, Regional Director South Asia, Australia; Mr Abdul-Hakeem Ajijola (AhA), Global Cybersecurity professionals’ influencer and thought leader, Nigeria; and Mr Martin Stewart, First Secretary Cyber Security, UK addressed the participants and shared their experience & insights on effective ways for communities to deal with cyber threats.

The event further progressed with conducting of Strategic Table Top Exercise (TTX) and Operational Drill using the CERT-In Exercise Platform.

The first Table Top Exercise catered to Board & Top Management on the theme “Synergy to counter Global Cyber Crisis” focused on Crisis Management & Crisis Communication. The second Table Top Exercise, an Operational Drill was designed for CISO and Mid-management on the theme “Building Collective Cyber Resilience”. The scenario for the exercise, which included cyber extortion, data breach, supply chain attacks and disruptions was derived from real-life cyber incidents, in which domestic-level (limited impact) incidents escalated to global cyber security crises.

The exercise was successful in meeting its objectives and provided insights on enhancing and improving Crisis Management, Crisis Communication, Incident Response and global coordination & cooperation.

Disclaimer: This is an official press release by PIB.