Jammu and Kashmir Lt Governor Manoj Sinha called for benchmarking of requisite skill sets and identification of specialised training centres for cybersecurity and standardisation of cyber tools.
Sinha was speaking virtually at the 30th Annual Global Conclave of International Institute of Security and Safety Management (IISSM) on ‘COVID-19 From Survival to Revival: Emerging Paradigms in Security and Safety Services'.
According to Sinha, the government has created a well-structured and functional policy framework to analyse potential threats and advance early warning systems in the last six-seven years, while also making health security and disaster management an integral part of the overall security infrastructure.
In his view, an institution like IISSM can assist industries in formulating security framework, safety protocols, and safety audit to bring about sustainable improvements in the operations.
He further suggested the collaboration of experts with government and private entities for working towards broader cybersecurity perspectives and called for launching a campaign for improving digital literacy of citizens.
He said, “With the timely measures and quick expansion of health infrastructure, the government fought against COVID-19 and ensured life returns to normalcy for other sectors too.”
The Lt governor asked the industries to focus on capacity building by formulating a dedicated industrial safety cadre, hiring experts and knowledge partners, and providing them with adequate training. In addition, he stressed upon each and every industrial unit to have proper maintenance checks, emergency crews and regular safety audits to improve efficiency.
Enabling the core business operations with robust security systems at the transaction level would lay the foundation for the sustainable reforms in industrial operations, said Sinha. He underlined setting up enterprise resource planning and installing an automated process control system, along with trained safety experts and maximum utilisation of information technology.
He informed, “In the Jammu Kashmir Union Territory, we have standard policies, control baseline and reference architecture, and emphasis is being laid on modern security framework by adequate resources and training for critical infrastructure and other small-scale enterprises.”
Shedding light on the financial crimes in the virtual world, Sinha said that it has brought new challenges and has given new-age fraudsters the opportunity to exploit certain gaps, leading to new types of financial crimes like phishing, email spoofing, social media account hacking, fake Covid products circulation through the dark web and malware attacks.
Currently, 90 security auditing organisations have been empanelled with the government to support and audit information security best practices, he said, adding private entities operating in critical infrastructure must work with them to secure IT infrastructure and mitigate any threat.
As per Sinha, there was tremendous scope to do much more in the cybersecurity sector to fill the collaboration gaps, competency gaps, awareness gaps and approach gaps.
“Artificial intelligence is going to redefine our work and life. There must be better coordination and a collaborative mechanism to bring all stakeholders together for companies, industrial units and other critical infrastructures,” the Lt governor mentioned.
