MHA issues advisory to create 'Special Wing of Cyber Commandos' in all states to counter cyber threats

Home Ministry. File Pic/ AFP

Amid growing cyber threats, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) on Tuesday issued an advisory to all states regarding the establishment of a Special Wing of Cyber Commandos.

In the past week, Indian airlines have received more than 100 hoax bomb threats resulting in inconvenience to passengers and monetary loss to the airlines.

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Most of the threats were posted on accounts on X and the accounts were created by using a virtual private network (VPN) or dark web browser that investigative agencies have been unable to detect.

The decision has been taken by the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C) after witnessing growing cyber threats and to enhance cyber defence capabilities.

In the order copy accessed by the ANI reads that during the DGPs, lGPs Conference held in the month of January 2023 and 2024, the Prime Minister recommended that a Special Wing of suitably trained 'Cyber Commandos' should be established within a police organization to counter threats of cyber security from cyberspace.

The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) plans to raise 5,000 Cyber Commandos over the next five years.

The Cyber Commando Wing would be an integral part of the police organization and would be deemed to be a national resource.

Prospective Cyber Commandos will be identified from among serving personnel (all ranks) in the various police organizations of the States/UTs and Central Police Organizations having basic knowledge of computer networks and operating systems, reads the order.

Trained Commandos will work for their parent organization and will be expected to be assigned roles according to the expertise they had developed during training in Digital forensics, Incident Response and Securing Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Infrastructure.

They shall not be utilized for roles not related to duties as a cyber-commando and may be utilized by MHA to respond to or mitigate any cyber-attacks and training for a short duration. I4C-MHA will maintain close liaison with the cyber commandos for continuous learning, knowledge upgradation and utilization, it further reads.

The first batch of 246 Cyber commandos are undergoing six months of intensive hands-on training at the following institutions; IIT Madras, IIT Kanpur, IIIT Kottayam, IIIT Naya Raipur, Rashtriya Raksha University (RRU) Gandhinagar, Defence Institute of Advance Technology (DIAT) Pune, National Forensic Science University (NFSU) Gandhinagar, and Delhi.

The duration of training is six months, including hands-on training, industry exposure, and field visits to equip trainees to handle cybersecurity exigencies.

These trainees were selected on the basis of a screening test held on 24 Feb 2024 at 32 test centres across the country.

I4C Plans to conduct the second screening test on 8th December 2024 to select the next set of Cyber Commandos.

The Guidelines for the Cyber Commando Training Programme, including complete details and the syllabus for the screening test.

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