A high-level five member Expert Group led by National Cyber Security Coordinator, Dr Gulshan Rai has proposed measures required to control cyber crime including legal and technical measures that includes creation of a national body Indian cyber crime coordination centre or I-4 C. Though little is known about the concept of I-4C, its construction and purpose seems to be somewhat on the lines of the National Counter Terrorism Centre (NCTC) minus the legal powers to carryout operations and arrests.
The idea of NCTC, an overarching body to counter all kinds of terror, money laundering and cyber crimes, was shelved by the UPA government following opposition from several states.
Besides having a national centre, the I-4C will also have branches in states and UTs and will be synced with the national intelligence grid (NATGRID) and crime and criminal tracking network system (CCTNS) to pick up and gather information of cyber crimes and analyse and predict future trends, sources said.
The I-4C will remain under the overall supervision of the union home ministry.
The government also plans to create an advance application for social media analytics that will involve organs of union home ministry, department of electronics and information technology (DEITY), ministry of external affairs, ministry of I&B and ministry of defence.
To keep check on the inflow and outflow of potentially dangerous information, the government also plans to route all internet gateways through a single gateway under its command.
"This may take time as it would involve extensive talks with the service providers on various issues," sources added.
The meeting was attended by union home minister Rajnath Singh home secretary Rajiv Mehrishi, secretary (internal security) Ashok Prasad, and members of the Expert Group Dr. Rajat Moona, DG, C-DAC, Pune, Prof Krishnan, IIS-Bengaluru, Dr. Manindra Aggarwal, IIT, Kanpur, Dr D. Dass, IIIT, Bengaluru.
The home minister directed the officials to come up with concrete proposals regarding infrastructure, research, people friendly interface so that the matter could be considered at the highest level in a well defined timeframe.
