CERT-In New Directions on Reporting Cyber Incidents
Recently, Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) has issued new instructions.
Under this, Virtual Private Network (VPN) providers in India have been made mandatory to store users’ data for five years.
- CERT-In is an institution under the ‘Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology’. It is the national nodal agency to respond to computer security breaches.
- The mandate of CERT-In applies to Virtual Private Server (VPS) providers, VPN service providers, cloud service providers and data centers. Its purpose is to maintain accurate information on customer registration details.
- A VPN is an encrypted connection from a device on the Internet to a network. It helps users hide their browsing history, Internet Protocol (IP) address, geographic location, their web activities and the devices being used.
- An IP address is a special web address that identifies a device on the Internet or local network.
Effect of the new step of CERT-In-
- Companies will be forced to use storage servers. This will increase the cost of the companies.
- The privacy of the end users may be reduced. With this their browsing and download history can be monitored.
Source – The Hindu
