Indian Cyber Command Contemplated Once Again!

India has reiterated its desire to constitute a cyber command covering all the three segments of armed forces of India. Previously the proposal was mooted in the month of May 2013. Now fresh interest has been shown in this crucial are by the armed forces of India.

The Centre of Excellence for Cyber Security Research and Development in India (CECSRDI), the exclusive centre of its kind managed by Perry4Law Organisation and Perry4Law’s Techno Legal Base (PTLB), has reported that a tri service cyber command for Armed Forces of India is in pipeline.

This is a good step in the right direction as Indian cyber security is lagging far behind as compared to other countries. India is still struggling to deal with issues like cyber warfare, cyber espionage and cyber terrorism, etc. The critical infrastructure protection in India and its problems, challenges and solutions (Pdf) are still to be managed by Indian government. In a good step in this direction, the NTRO would protect the Critical ICT Infrastructures of India.

According to cyber security experts, a dedicated cyber warfare policy of India (Pdf) must be formulated as soon as possible. The present effort of Indian government seems to be a step towards that objective.

However, the main thing is the implementation of various policies formulated from time to time. Till now Indian government has not been able to implement the objectives of the National Cyber Security Policy of India 2013 (NCSP 2013). Further, India government has also failed to integrate the NCSP 2013 with the National Security Policy of India.

Another major failure of Indian government in this regard is the failure to enact a legislation mandating strict cyber security disclosure norms in India. Although proposed almost a year ago, the disclosure norms for cyber security breaches in India are still not implemented. This would prevent actual and effective implementation of cyber security norms in India. This would also affect the cyber security legal practice in India.

It is high time for Indian government to move beyond simple policies formulations to their actual implementation. Without implementation everything is just a dream.