National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval said on Monday that any threat in the cyberspace directly impacts the country's social, economic and national security and therefore India must safeguard its cyberspace.Inaugurating a National Cyber Exercise (NCX) with an aim to train senior management and technical staff of the government on contemporary cyber threats and handling cyber incidents, Doval said that digital revolution is taking place in the country.He further said that with the launch of a large number of digital services by the government, cyber security remains the foundation of any successful digital transformation and any threat to the digital world may impact the country in many ways.The NCX will be conducted as a hybrid exercise from April 18 to 29 in association with the National Security Council Secretariat (NSCS) of the government with the Data Security Council of India (DSCI) as the knowledge partner, supported by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO).The platform for training is being provided by CyberExer Technologies, an Estonian cyber security company accredited for globally conducting several large-scale cyber exercises.
"More than 140 officials will be trained through training sessions with strategic exercises. The participants will be trained on various key cyber security areas such as intrusion detection techniques, malware information sharing platform (MISP), vulnerability handling and penetration testing, network protocols and data flows, and digital forensics," an official in the NSCS said.The NCX India will help strategic leaders to better understand cyber threats, assess readiness, and develop skills for cyber crisis management and cooperation. This will also help develop and test cyber security skills, teamwork, planning, communication, critical thinking, and decision-making.During the event, the National Cyber Security Coordinator, Lt. General Rajesh Pant, brought out the importance of Indian cyberspace and the necessity of keeping it secure and safe for the citizens, businesses and governments.He also talked about the increase in ransomware and supply chain attacks taking place in the world as well as in India and how it is very vital to achieve synergy among all the organisations for effectively countering these attacks.Pant highlighted the recent ransomware attack on Oil India Limited (OIL) and the importance of cyber warfare in the global scenario.