The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) issued an advisory on Tuesday, urging all states to establish a Special Wing of Cyber Commandos. The initiative comes in response to over 100 hoax bomb threats targeting Indian airlines in the past week, causing significant disruption to passengers and financial losses for the airlines.
The majority of these threats were traced back to accounts on social media platform X, created using virtual private networks (VPNs) or dark web browsers, eluding detection by investigative agencies. The Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C) has recognized the urgent need to bolster cyber defense capabilities and protect against such threats.
The formation of this Special Wing was recommended by the Prime Minister during the DGPs and IGPs Conference held in January 2023 and 2024. The MHA aims to recruit 5,000 Cyber Commandos over the next five years, with the wing integrated into state police organizations, functioning as a national resource.
The selection process for Cyber Commandos will focus on serving personnel from various police organizations at state and central levels who possess foundational knowledge of computer networks and operating systems. These trained commandos will work within their respective police organizations and will be tasked based on their expertise developed in digital forensics, incident response, and securing information and communication technology (ICT) infrastructure.
Crucially, Cyber Commandos will not be diverted to unrelated roles and may be called upon by the MHA to respond to or mitigate cyber-attacks, as well as receive short-term training. I4C-MHA will maintain continuous communication with these commandos for ongoing learning and skill enhancement.
Currently, the first batch of 246 Cyber Commandos is undergoing six months of rigorous hands-on training at several prestigious institutions, including IIT Madras, IIT Kanpur, and the National Forensic Science University (NFSU) in Gandhinagar. This training encompasses practical exercises, industry exposure, and field visits to prepare the commandos for cybersecurity emergencies.
Candidates for this initial batch were selected through a screening test held on February 24, 2024, at 32 centers across the nation. The I4C plans to conduct a second screening test on December 8, 2024, to recruit the next cohort of Cyber Commandos, with detailed guidelines and syllabus for the training program forthcoming.
(Inputs from ANI)