Goa to form cyber cell to monitor threats to govt websites

Panaji, Aug 10: Goa government today told the state Legislative Assembly that they are in the process of forming a cyber cell which will monitor possible threats to the state-run websites.

Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar told the House that till date 17 Goa government websites were hacked on different occasions, but the hackers had only defaced the front page, while leaving the internal data intact.

"Looking at the increase in number of cyber security threats and concerns, the department of Information and Technology is in the process of setting up a cyber cell in-house which would monitor the cyber treats in the government websites," Parsekar said during Question Hour while responding to a query by Congress MLA Mauvin Godinho.

The CM said currently Central government-appointed agency is monitoring the threats to the (government) websites.

"The state has not formed any cyber security policy, but as far as the government websites as well the State Data Centre (SDC) is concerned, the various security guidelines laid by the Central government are being put in practice or implemented," he told the House.

As per information provided on the floor of the House, the websites that came under attack by hackers were of departments like health, captain of ports, water resources, accounts, NRI commission, agriculture, fisheries, central library, sainik welfare and others.

PTI