Internet Democracy, an initiative by the NGO Point of View, has released an interactive map of Indian Government’s cyber security institutions. It provides a clearer picture of the hierarchy of the cyber security agencies under the Government. We have listed some of the most important agencies that are involved in cyber surveillance or dealing with cyber crime. Institutes focusing on national cyber security: The New Media Wing (NMW) and the Electronic Media Monitoring Centre (EMMC) come under the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) and are involved in media surveillance. The EMMC reports breaking news aired on networks to the National Security Advisor and the Principal Secretary to the PM. The NMW tracks the internet, including microblogs etc., to government relevant trends and gauge public opinions. Most of the institutes under the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) also fall in this category. The National Intelligence Grid (NATGRID) which keeps all sorts of citizen data in a single database that can be accessed by officers from RAW, CBI, IB etc., comes under the MHA. The National Cyber Coordination Center (NCCC) and the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) also come under this ministry. Other than this, the Home Affairs Ministry directly controls the Intelligence Bureau (IB), the National Investigation Agency (NIA), the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB). All institutes under the MHA are in charge of internal security in some capacity. The NCB and IB are exempted under RTI. The Ministry of Communication and Information Technology…
