This discussion has been ongoing for over a year. The Home Affairs Ministry argues that having CERT-In under its control would enhance law enforcement efforts
The Information Technology (IT) Ministry and the Home Affairs Ministry are in a heated debate over who should control the Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In), India’s primary cybersecurity watchdog. Currently, CERT-In operates under the IT Ministry.
This discussion has been ongoing for over a year. The Home Affairs Ministry argues that having CERT-In under its control would enhance law enforcement efforts. They believe CERT-In’s technical skills could significantly improve their investigative capabilities in cyberspace, given that the Home Affairs Ministry has enforcement powers.
However, the IT Ministry contends that CERT-In’s responsibilities extend beyond law enforcement. CERT-In’s role involves incident reporting and alerting organisations about malware, which are highly technical tasks. “CERT-In’s main job is to share inputs with the government on how the security infrastructure can be better, which is a very technical function. They have very limited powers in terms of actually carrying out investigations. For instance, unlike law enforcement agencies, CERT-In does not have any search and seizure powers, which limits its abilities to conduct full-blown investigations on its own,” a senior government official said.
A second government official echoed these sentiments, noting that the Home Ministry believes it could streamline law enforcement work if it had direct control over a technical agency like CERT-In. “The Home Ministry is approaching the debate with the perspective that since it has the overall investigative powers for various offences, if it also controls a technical agency like CERT-In directly, it might help streamline some of the law enforcement agencies’ work.”
The situation illustrates the complexity of the online world, where multiple stakeholders must collaborate despite having different approaches and mandates. The ongoing debate highlights the bureaucratic power dynamics at play.
Multiple queries sent to both the IT and Home Affairs Ministries did not elicit a response.
