Internet is not confined to boundary: Kiren Rijiju

NEW DELHI: Cyber world is ‘real’ and need to understand the real internet, the more we are getting inside, the more challenges we are bound to face it, said Kiren Rijiju, Minister of State for Home Affairs at an ASSOCHAM event held in New Delhi today.

Internet is not confined to the boundary, it is virtual internet world and we are internet connected, said Mr Rijiju while inaugurating ‘9th annual summit on cyber & network security,’ organised by The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM).

He stressed upon the important aspect of cyber security cooperation. Rijiju said "Yesterday we had a long discussion with team of Bangladesh led by their home minister and the entire team of their security experts and forces. So, again we have stressed that we really need to work closely to deal with this cyber security problems."

"I am going to Indonesia and Bali to attend the world conference on 'How to tackle terror threats?.' So, the whole world is coming together, there is closer coordination between the world community to deal with this challenges which we faced today, highlighted Rijiju.

“Within the government, we always find there is a gap between the state intelligence agency and central intelligence agency. The sharing of information has to be seamless. If we have a gap, even a small gap it can become a huge gap. So, we have stressed the multi agency centre which we have created and local level also shouldn’t have any gap because when it come to the national security we all are one so whatever happens in a political level or official level we can’t afford to have a gap,” said Rijiju.

“We realised over the year that the coordination which we have put in place is working very well but we really need to upgrade it. The home ministry has been given the mandate of National Security Policy and guidelines, we are updating ourselves and we know in the home ministry needs to do much more what we are doing  because the involving situations needs equally responsive attitude from the government and realise that,” he said.

The objective of the cyber security creating a secure eco-system and creating a assured framework and encouraging open standards and strengthening the regulatory framework that will ease the situation because we really need to enhance a seamless coordination amongst government agency at various levels, private sectors, government and some more importantly we have to make sure the general people of the state, of country and of the society need to be updated.

“If the government has to succeed in the securing society within us because the adverse public mind set will create big hurdle which is difficult to take care of. In Kashmir some of the places, we have realised it some areas with people are highly motivated and totally out of the national mainstream talk. So, the situation is very adverse and we face hostile attitude and in those kind of situation it is very difficult to really get into the bottom,” said Rijiju.

"Couple of years back, our army captured a terrorist alive and he gave us some vital information and through that we laid our ambush and could utilise four of them and then how we used the technology and got the information in details," he added.

"We really need to get the common people into the whole process. That’s why we stressed that not only government people but also have to ensure that we integrate the community people into the process and all the stakeholders into one platform," he said.

“So, virtually we all are connected and no more isolated previous experts who are into the domain no more,” said Rijiju.

“The business community especially directly involved, the challenges are becoming more acute. It is difficult to figure out the quantum of the losses but the effect because of which the businesses have to suffer is huge,” Rijiju said.

“The Prime Minister is very clear that we must have a secure society no matter we talk about the smart cities. If the cities are not secure it can’t be smart. In a smart city meeting, I told all committee members that you have integrate the security system in a very initial stage so that you can really talk about the smart city and completely secure,” said the minister.

“Most of places in NCR, we have found some pockets not very safe for the businessman and for the business itself. We realise that we must not compromise even an inch when it comes to security,” he added.