Arrangements In Place To Secure Nuclear Power Plant From Cyber-attack: Jitendra Singh

The Union Minister of State Science and Technology Jitendra Singh on Thursday said that security arrangements are in place to protect India’s nuclear power plant systems from cyber-attack.

In a written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha, Singh said, these security measures include authorisation, authentication and access control mechanisms, strict configuration control and surveillance. 

Additionally, the nuclear power plant systems are isolated from the internet and are not accessible from the administrative network. 

Several measures have been taken to strengthen Information Security in administrative networks in nuclear power plants, hardening of internet and administrative intranet connectivity, restriction on removable media and blocking of websites and IPs.

On the issue of the September 2019 cyber-attack on the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant, Singh informed, “Investigations have been carried out by the Computer and Information Security Advisory Group (CISAG) – DAE along with the national agency, Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In)."

He said that the measures implemented based on their recommendations include Physical separation of Intranet and Internet access, secure virtual browsing terminal for dedicated internet use, secured data transfer provisions requiring authentication in place, independent security review prior to the posting of new web applications.