CS assesses Cybersecurity Framework, sets deadlines for key upgrade

Jammu, Dec 19: Chief Secretary Atal Dulloo on Thursday chaired a high-level meeting to review the progress of the Cyber Security Action Plan being implemented across the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir.

The meeting was attended by Administrative Secretaries of various departments, Inspector General of Police (Crime), Commissioners of Jammu and Srinagar Municipal Corporations, Deputy Director General NIC, CEO JaKeGA and other senior officers.

At the outset, the Chief Secretary reviewed initiatives taken to strengthen the cyber security architecture of the UT. He assessed the status of decommissioning redundant government websites, security audits of departmental portals, and the installation of Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) and Unified Endpoint Management (UEM) solutions in offices of Heads of Departments. These measures, he noted, are crucial for protecting government digital infrastructure from emerging cyber threats.

He also reviewed progress on key projects, including augmentation of the State Data Centre (SDC), operationalisation of a Mini Security Operations Centre (SOC), adoption of official government email IDs by employees, expansion of Government Drive usage, and capacity-building initiatives aimed at improving cyber hygiene across departments.

Emphasising the need for a comprehensive protection mechanism for IT assets, the Chief Secretary directed all Drawing and Disbursing Officers to complete inventorisation of IT assets on the e-SAM portal within one month. He further instructed NIC to prepare a detailed action plan within a month for strengthening the SDC and implementing additional cyber security safeguards across J&K.

Earlier, IGP Crime Sujit Singh briefed the meeting on an in-depth assessment of cyber forensic capabilities at the Cyber Investigation Centre for Excellence (CICE), J&K. He said a structured three-phase approach has been adopted, beginning with evaluation of technical requirements and tools for CICE and Cyber Police Stations, followed by assessment in light of emerging threats such as deep fakes, encrypted communications and data breaches, and concluding with market analysis and consultations on advanced tools.

Secretary IT Department, Dr Piyush Singla, presented an overview of cyber security implementation in the UT. He informed that security audits of departmental websites have been completed and 35 redundant websites decommissioned. EDR and UEM solutions have been deployed across Civil Secretariat complexes in Jammu and Srinagar, securing around 5,100 devices, while 15,000 additional devices in HoD offices are targeted by January 2026.

The meeting was told that 28 departments have initiated IT asset census, while 14 have been asked to expedite the process. Adoption of official government email IDs has reached 1.81 lakh users, with 35,000 additions since May 2025. Other initiatives include deployment of 19 honeypots and expansion of Government Drive users to 318 across departments.