133 government websites hacked in January-March: Sachin Pilot

 As many as 133 government websitesfell prey to hackers in the first three months of 2012, Minister of State for Communications and IT Sachin Pilot has said. 

As per incidents reported to and tracked by theIndian Computer Emergency Response team (CERT), a total number of 92, 204, 248 government websites were hacked during the years 2009, 2010 and 2011 respectively. 133 websites were hacked during January to March 2012," Pilot said in a written reply to the Lok Sabha. 

According to the Reserve Bank, 2,232 internet fraud cases involving Rs 1,234.94 lakh were registered in 2010. CBI too registered two cyber crime cases involving Rs 17 lakh during the same year. 

Giving reference of Norton Cyber Crime Report published in 2011, Pilot said India lost USD 4 billion due to cyber crimes compared to USD 114 billion world-wide and 80 per cent of the people surveyed experienced cyber crime. 

"The report was based on survey conducted involving 19,636 people across 24 countries including 600 from India, however, the report mentions that the data is extrapolated based of survey, it is not validated," he added. 

In order to tackle cyber crime, the government has taken various measures like establishing a legal framework in the form of Information Technology Act, 2000. 

"The act provides legal framework to address the issues connected with cyber crime, cyber attacks and security breaches on IT infrastructure," Pilot said. 

He said preliminary discussions have been held on the establishment of multi stakeholder National Cyber Coordination Centre which will detect malicious cyber attacks and issue early warning alerts. 

The government also provides early warning and response to cyber security incidents through CERT and has collaboration at national and international level for information sharing. 

"The government has formulated crisis management plan for countering cyber attacks and cyber terrorism," he added.