Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology has launched five cyber-security tools, as part of its
Cyber Swachhta Kendra (CSK), to prevent users from facing threats on the web.
These tools are:
- Bot Removal Tool
- USB Pratirodh
- AppSamvid
- M-Kavach
- Browser JSGuard
Even though all these tools will be provided free of cost, four of these tools, which are meant to guard computers, would only run on Microsoft’s Windows operating system, a move which experts have pegged to be against the government’s open source policy. The open source policy calls for adoption of open standards for government procurement.
The Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In), which has developed the CSK, would collect data of infected systems that are connected with the internet service providers and banks that have come on-board and send inform them of any threats.
Bot Removal Tool
- Developed by Pune-headquartered Quick Heal Technologies.
- It would detect and remove botnet infection (A botnet, or a robot network, is a number of devices connected to the internet, which are used by a botnet owner to perform various tasks such as performing Distributed Denial of Service Attack, steal data, send spam, allow the attacker access to the device and its connection. A device is compromised when it is penetrated by software from a malicious software, also known as malware) from computers.
- However, it does not provide any protection against other malware, or prevent data theft, making it necessary for a user to have an anti-virus software.
Apart from this, the four other tools that have been launched were developed by the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC).
USB Pratirodh
- A software solution, which controls unauthorised usage of portable USB mass storage devices.
- Through this software, user can add or remove devices to the database, and also bind one or more USB devices to be accessed using a username and password.
- Any unauthorised new USB device cannot be accessed, unless it is registered. Whenever a USB device gets plugged in, the user would need to authenticate it. The software also detects and deletes malware from the mass storage device plugged into a computer.
AppSamvidtool
- A software to white-list executable files (Executable files are those which end with an extension .exe, .class, .war, .jar, are often loaded with Trojans and viruses. Upon execution of these files, they infect the computers) that would run on a computer, as opposed to the method adopted by anti-virus software to black-list files that may contain viruses.
- One advantage that the white-listing method presents is that it does not require frequent updates.
- Through this software, users can choose to add trusted executable files to the white-list, and only those files will be allowed to run.
M-Kavach
- A mobile device security application for Android devices.
- Addresses threats related to misuse of resources such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, camera and mobile data by preventing unauthorised access to these resources.
- It also offers options such ‘anti-theft’, by which a user can remotely wipe the phone of its data in case the device is stolen or is lost.
- It also helps in tracking SIM card changes on the device.
- M-Kavach app also allows users to restrict access to critical applications like mobile wallets, social media apps, etc.
Browser JSGuard
- It detects and defends malicious HTML and JavaScript attacks made through the web browser based on Heuristics (a technique designed for solving a problem more quickly when classic methods are too slow, or for finding an approximate solution when classic methods fail to find any exact solution).
The software learns from previous threats to understand potential future threats, and alerts the user when a malicious web page is visited by providing a detailed analysis, and threat report of the web page.
