Govt Increases Layers of Security on Its Websites

In October 2024, a Ransomware Attack on the State Data Centre Had Forced Officials to Shut Its 192 Applications and Websites for Multiple Days

- Amit Bathla

DEHRADUN: Uttarakhand is adding layers of security to its internet domains after a ransomware attack on the state data centre crippled the government services in October last year, officials familiar with the matter said.

Nikita Khandelwal, director, Information Technology Development Agency (ITDA), said: "We began with penetration testing to uncover weaknesses in our applications and websites. These vulnerabilities were flagged to the concerned departments, and websites with critical security flaws were temporarily shut down."

Khandelwal said that they have also taken over the responsibility of conducting security audits of websites at their level, rather than leaving it to the individual departments.

She said, "It was earlier the department's culpability to ensure a security audit of their websites. But generally what happens is that after security audit certification of many websites expire, we keep writing to departments, but they don't revert. We then decided to get it done at our level to ensure there are no vulnerabilities in the applications and websites after the ransomware attack."

"We have already conducted security audits of over 160 out of the 192 applications and websites. The process may take a week more to complete," she said.

She further said that a security audit is carried out annually if any major changes are not made in applications and websites.