The Defence Cyber Agency (DCyA) is a tri-service

command Command may refer to: Computing * Command (computing), a statement in a computer language * COMMAND.COM, the default operating system shell and command-line interpreter for DOS * Command key, a modifier key on Apple Macintosh computer keyboards ...

of the

Indian Armed Forces The Indian Armed Forces are the military forces of the Republic of India. It consists of three professional uniformed services: the Indian Army, Indian Navy, and Indian Air Force.—— Additionally, the Indian Armed Forces are supported by ...

. Headquartered in

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, the agency is tasked with handling cyber security threats. The DCyA draws personnel from all three branches of the Armed Forces. The head of the DCyA is an officer of two-star rank, and reports to the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) through the

Integrated Defence Staff The Integrated Defence Staff (IDS) is an organisation responsible for fostering coordination and enabling prioritisation across the different branches of the Indian Armed Forces. It is composed of representatives from the Indian Army, Indian Navy ...

(IDS).

Indian Navy The Indian Navy is the maritime branch of the Indian Armed Forces. The President of India is the Supreme Commander of the Indian Navy. The Chief of Naval Staff, a four-star admiral, commands the navy. As a blue-water navy, it operates sig ...

Rear Admiral Rear admiral is a senior naval flag officer rank, equivalent to a major general and air vice marshal and above that of a commodore and captain, but below that of a vice admiral. It is regarded as a two star " admiral" rank. It is often rega ...

Mohit Gupta was appointed in May 2019 as the first head of the DCyA. The DCyA was expected to be operational by November 2019. As of 2021, DCyA is fully operational with Army, Air Force and Navy established their respective Cyber Emergency Response Teams (CERT).

History

The Naresh Chandra Task Force was set up in July 2011 by

National Security Advisor A national security advisor serves as the chief advisor to a national government on matters of security. The advisor is not usually a member of the government's cabinet but is usually a member of various military or security councils. National secu ...

Shivshankar Menon to review the recommendations of the Kargil Review Committee, assess the implementation progress and further suggest new reforms related to national security. The task force was led by Naresh Chandra, retired

Indian Administrative Service The Indian Administrative Service (IAS) is the administrative arm of the All India Services of Government of India. Considered the premier civil service of India, the IAS is one of the three arms of the All India Services along with the India ...

officer, and comprised 13other members, including Gopalaswami Parthasarathy, Air Chief Marshal Srinivasapuram Krishnaswamy (Retd), Admiral Arun Prakash (Retd), Lt Gen V. R. Raghavan (Retd), Anil Kakodkar, K C Verma and V K Duggal. The committee conducted the first holistic review of national security since the Kargil Review Committee and submitted its classified report to Prime Minister

Manmohan Singh Manmohan Singh (; born 26 September 1932) is an Indian politician, economist and statesman who served as the 13th prime minister of India from 2004 to 2014. He is also the third longest-serving prime minister after Jawaharlal Nehru and Indi ...

on 23May2012. Among its recommendations, the Task Force recommended the creation of a cyber command (DCyA), an aerospace command and a special operations command. All three units were proposed to be tri-service commands in order to bring the various special forces units of the military under a unified command and control structure. The creation of the Defence Cyber Agency (DCyA), the Defence Space Agency (DSA), and the Armed Forces Special Operations Division (AFSOD) were approved by Prime Minister

Narendra Modi Narendra Damodardas Modi (; born 17 September 1950) is an Indian politician serving as the List of Prime Ministers of India, 14th and current Prime Minister of India since 2014. Modi was the List of chief ministers of Gujarat, Chief Minist ...

during the Combined Commanders' Conference at Jodhpur Air Force Station on 28 September 2018. The existing Defence Information Assurance and Research Agency will be upgraded to form the new Defence Cyber Agency.

Area of responsibility

The Week ''The Week'' is a weekly news magazine with editions in the United Kingdom and United States. The British publication was founded in 1995 and the American edition in 2001. An Australian edition was published from 2008 to 2012. A children's edi ...

'' reported that the DCyA would have the capability to hack into networks, mount surveillance operations, lay honeypot, recover deleted data from hard drives and cellphones, break into

encrypted communication Secure communication is when two entities are communicating and do not want a third party to listen in. For this to be the case, the entities need to communicate in a way that is unsusceptible to eavesdropping or interception. Secure communicati ...

channels, and perform other complex objectives. According to Lieutenant General Deependra Singh Hooda, the DCyA will have the responsibility of framing a long-term policy for the security of military networks, which includes eliminating the use of foreign hardware and software in the

, and preparing a

Cyberwarfare Cyberwarfare is the use of cyber attacks against an enemy state, causing comparable harm to actual warfare and/or disrupting vital computer systems. Some intended outcomes could be espionage, sabotage, propaganda, manipulation or economic war ...

doctrine.

References

{{Military of India Ministry of Defence (India) Government agencies established in 2018 2018 establishments in India Joint military units and formations of India

History

Area of responsibility

See also

References