Centre’s Strategic Move: National MU Nair Named National Cybersecurity Coordinator

Lt. Gen. M. U. Nair has been chosen by the government to be the new national cybersecurity commander (NCSC).

Nair became the 28th Signal Officer-in-Chief in July 2022. He has also been the director of the Military College of Telecommunication Engineering.

Lt. Gen. Rajesh Pant, who was also a member of the Indian Army’s Corps of Signals, hands over his job as NCSC to Nair. Pant was the head of the NCSC after Gulshan Rai, who was the first head of the body for cybersecurity and electronic surveillance.

Under the National Security Council Secretariat, the NCSC coordinates with different central-level agencies on topics of national and critical importance related to cyber security. The agency is also in charge of keeping an eye on the metadata of communications and sending this information to different law enforcement agencies so they can look into possible cases of hacking.

The NCSC is currently updating and replacing the 2013 National Cyber Security Strategy. The new strategy will focus on a common but differentiated approach (CBDR), which means that while the overall goal of cybersecurity will be the same for everyone, government organizations, private institutions, academic institutions, and other stakeholders will have different goals.

The National Cyber Security Reference Framework (NCRF), which will replace the 2013 strategy, is meant to be a document that helps critical sectors like banking, telecom, power and energy, banking and financial services, transportation, strategic and government enterprises, and healthcare companies manage their internet governance and network management.

Aside from that, the document is likely to tell these areas how to deal with cyberattacks and how to get their systems back online after they have been attacked.