Govt thwarted all hacking attempts: Sachin Pilot

New Delhi, Mar 6: Dispelling fears on hackers penetrating into important informations, Minister of State for Communication and Information Technology Sachin Pilot said that the government has been successful averting such attempts.

"Yes, there have been attempts but I can categorically say that not one attempt has been successful," the minister said. "The government's computer network system, maintained by the National Informatics Centre, is highly efficient," Pilot said in a news agency report.

Lauding officials efficiency in preventing such attempts, Pilot said that hackers in are search of a weak spot.

"But our people are very efficient and well trained. Safeguards have ensured that national security has not been breached."

Pilot's statement came amidst report on hackers trying to penetrate government computers in vital ministries like office of the National Security Adviser (NSA).

Earlier, West Bengal governor and former NSA, M K Narayanan said that hackers targeted his office and other government departments on the same day the US defence, finance and technology companies, including Google, reported cyber attacks from China.

An email with PDF attachment containing a Trojan virus, which allows hackers to download or delete files, were sent by the hackers.

However, it was detected and officials were warned against logging in until the virus was destroyed.

Security measures like frequently changing passwords and using e-mails only for routine communication have been included in the protocol prescribed by the Ministry of External Affairs and Indian embassies for its officers.

Along with that a periodic security review of all computers are done to avert cyber threats.

India had reported a total of 6,023 cases of defacement in 2009, while in 2010, Computer Emergency Response Team, a cyber security advisory and referral agency of the Department of Information Technology informed that 570 Indian web sites were defaced in Jan.

OneIndia News