New Delhi: India’s expanding digital ecosystem is facing a rising volume of cyber security incidents, with the number reported to and tracked by the country’s national cyber response agency increasing substantially over the past three years.
A total of 29,44,248 cyber security incidents were reported to and tracked by the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) in 2025, compared with 20,41,360 in 2024 and 15,92,917 in 2023, provided.
The figures do not represent attacks on Central government websites alone. They cover cyber security incidents reported to and tracked by CERT-In across the wider ecosystem, including incidents involving government-managed platforms.
CERT-In is designated as the national agency for responding to cyber security incidents under Section 70B of the Information Technology Act, 2000. When incidents are observed, the agency advises affected organisations on remedial measures and coordinates responses with service providers, sector regulators and law enforcement agencies.
The government said a nationwide integrated mechanism has been established to deal with cyber attacks, covering threat intelligence, incident response, protection of critical infrastructure, security audits and cyber security training.
The National Cyber Coordination Centre, implemented by CERT-In, examines cyberspace for potential threats and shares threat intelligence with organisations, state governments and other stakeholder agencies.
Protection of critical digital infrastructure is handled through the National Critical Information Infrastructure Protection Centre, which was established under Section 70A of the Information Technology Act. NCIIPC provides near real-time threat intelligence and situational awareness, issues alerts and conducts vulnerability and risk assessments of critical information infrastructure and protected systems.
Cyber security audits have also been made part of the government’s digital security framework. All government websites and applications are required to undergo cyber security audits before being hosted, with audits continuing periodically after deployment.
CERT-In has empanelled 237 Information Security Auditing Organisations to carry out security audits, vulnerability assessments and penetration testing of computer systems, networks, websites and applications used by government organisations and critical sectors.
Sector-specific response teams are also operating in sensitive areas such as finance and power. CSIRT-Fin coordinates cyber incident response in the banking and financial sector. CERT-In’s official annual reports state that CSIRT-Fin has been operational since 15 May 2020.
The PIB release issued on August 14 states May 2022 for CSIRT-Fin, creating a discrepancy with CERT-In’s own official records. CERT-In’s 2020 and 2024 annual reports both give 15 May 2020 as the operational date.
CSIRT-Power, meanwhile, has been operational since September 2024 to coordinate cyber security issues involving power-sector entities. CERT-In also operates an automated cyber threat intelligence exchange platform that shares customised alerts with organisations for proactive mitigation of threats.
The agency has formulated a Cyber Crisis Management Plan for ministries, departments, state governments and their organisations, while regular cyber security mock drills are conducted to assess preparedness in government and critical sectors.
For individual internet users, CERT-In operates the Cyber Swachhta Kendra, a botnet cleaning and malware analysis facility that helps identify malicious programmes and provides free tools for their removal.
The government is also expanding cyber security awareness programmes. Under the Information Security Education and Awareness project, 6,650 workshops have been conducted across India, covering more than 11.37 lakh participants, including students, teachers, government officials, law enforcement personnel and the general public.
CERT-In conducted 32 cyber security training programmes for 20,799 participants in 2025. Another 13 programmes covering 12,109 participants were held during 2026 up to June.
The government also conducts National Cyber Security Awareness Month in October, Safer Internet Day in February and Cyber Jagrookta Diwas on the first Wednesday of every month as part of efforts to improve awareness of cyber threats and fraud prevention.
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