Chief Secretary Atal Dulloo recently chaired a high-level meeting to review cyber security efforts protecting government websites and critical digital infrastructure in Jammu and Kashmir. The session was attended by the Secretary IT, Administrative Secretaries of various departments, and senior officials from NIC, JaKeGA, and the IT Department.
During the meeting, Atal Dulloo highlighted the urgent need to complete website security audits within defined timelines. He noted that delays in restoring websites cause public inconvenience and directed all departments to ensure that audit processes are time-bound. He also ordered the immediate removal of unused and redundant websites, stating they pose avoidable security threats.
To strengthen internal capabilities, Atal Dulloo emphasized building the skills of departmental Chief Information Security Officers and Information Security Officers so that future audits can be managed internally with more efficiency and reduced security risks.
He instructed the installation of mandatory security software on all official devices and prohibited the use of private email accounts for official communication, citing concerns over data safety.
Addressing infrastructure upgrades, Atal Dulloo acknowledged the need to enhance the State Data Centre in Jammu and directed the IT Department to begin the process using available funds. He assured that additional funds would be provided as needed.
Secretary IT, Dr. Piyush Singla, gave a detailed presentation on the current cyber security framework. He shared that out of 239 government websites hosted at the J&K State Data Centre, 140 are live. Of the remaining 99 non-live websites, 70 are being audited by a Third-Party Auditor, 11 are under departmental audit, 10 are pending but included in the audit plan, 6 are waiting for staging, and 2 have already been decommissioned.
To accelerate the process, the auditing agency has been asked to deploy four more resources, with all pending audits expected to conclude within two months. Regular updates and reports are being shared with Administrative Secretaries.
Additional measures include deploying Endpoint Detection and Response systems at key secretariats, implementing Multi-Factor Authentication for VPN access, limiting router requests to India, and enforcing security protocols for firewall changes. Compliance with CERT-In and OWASP top 10 standards is being ensured across all platforms, and critical portals like Land Records, NGDRS, and CVS are currently under audit with mitigation steps in progress.
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