Chennai: An alert has been sounded to NHAI, NHIDCL and its other wings besides automobile makers by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways to augment their IT security systems after reports regarding threats of possible cyber attacks targeted at the Indian transport sector.
According to the Ministry, it has received an alert from the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) about possible cyber attacks.
In a statement, it said, ‘The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways received an alert from CERT-In regarding targeted intrusion activities directed towards Indian Transport sector with possible malicious intentions. The Ministry has advised departments and organisations under transport sector to strengthen the security posture of their infrastructure.”
The Ministry has requested NIC, National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), National Highways and Infrastructure Development Corporation (NHIDCL), Indian Road Congress (IRC), Indian Academy of Highway Engineers (IAHE), State PWDs, Testing agencies and Automobile manufacturers to conduct the security audit of the entire IT system by CERT-In certified agencies.
It advised such security audits on a regular basis besides taking all actions as per their recommendations.
The Ministry also asked the audit report and the action taken report to be regularly submitted to the Ministry.
In June 2020 also NHAI had reported a cyber attack on its email server and had said that prompt action resulted in no data loss. It had shut down its server then as a precaution.