Jammu Kashmir: Cyber Forensic Centre Proposal Sent to PHQ; Rs 3.97 Crore Released for Mini-SOC  | Kashmir Life

SRINAGAR: The Jammu and Kashmir Government on Saturday informed the Assembly that a comprehensive proposal for establishing a Cyber Forensic Investigation Centre of Excellence (CICE) has been prepared and submitted to Police Headquarters for further action, while Rs 3.97 crore has already been released for setting up a mini-Security Operations Centre (mini-SOC) to strengthen cyber surveillance across the Union Territory.

The disclosures were made during discussions on cyber security preparedness and digital infrastructure strengthening under the Demand for Grants.

The Government clarified that the establishment of Cyber Forensic Labs pertains to the Home Department. A detailed proposal for the Cyber Forensic Investigation Centre of Excellence (CICE), JK has been prepared in line with prescribed technical specifications and recommendations and forwarded to Police Headquarters (PHQ) for necessary processing.

At the policy and governance level, cyber security oversight has been institutionalised through monthly review meetings chaired by the Chief Secretary and the constitution of an Information Security Steering Committee under the Secretary, IT Department. Chief Information Security Officers (CISOs), Information Security Officers (ISOs) and technical experts have been nominated across departments and districts to ensure decentralised accountability and coordinated response mechanisms.

The Government stated that mandatory security audits of all government websites and applications hosted on the State Data Centre (SDC) and NIC Mini Data Centre have been conducted. Redundant websites have been decommissioned to reduce the attack surface.

Cyber Crisis Management Plans (CCMPs) have been prepared by all Administrative Departments, with 14 plans already approved by Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In).

To enhance endpoint protection, large-scale deployment of Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) and Unified Endpoint Management (UEM) licenses has been undertaken. The use of gov.in email accounts has been enforced, USB device access restricted, and honeypots deployed to detect malicious activity.

The mini-Security Operations Centre (mini-SOC), for which Rs 3.97 crore has been released, will provide real-time monitoring, threat detection and coordinated incident response across government IT systems.

Additionally, regular cyber security trainings, cyber drills and Cyber Jagrookta awareness initiatives are being conducted. The launch of the eSecurity Assessment and Management (eSAM) portal is aimed at strengthening compliance monitoring and structured risk assessment.

The Government informed the House that budgetary provisions for cyber security are embedded within allocations of the IT and Home Departments, and that staffing, training and phased operationalisation plans are being implemented in a systematic manner to support the Digital JK initiative.