Patna, Jul 23 (PTI) The Bihar government has nominated the Economic Offences Unit (EOU) as the nodal agency for ensuring cyber security of all departments and installations.

The security of government departments and installations has emerged as a major challenge because of rising incidents of cybercrimes in the state.

"In view of this, the state government has nominated the EOU as the nodal agency for ensuring cyber security of all departments and installations," said a statement issued by the Information and Public Relations Department (IPRD) of the state government.

"As part of the exercise, cyber audits will be carried out in all the government departments and installations. The move would make it clear that online activities, including the websites of government departments, online services or transactions will be subjected to cyber-related security standards. The discrepancies or anomalies found during the audit will be removed at the earliest," the statement added.

The entire exercise of cyber audit will be carried out with the cooperation from C-DAC (Centre for Development of Advance Computing), I4C (Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre) and other agencies. A special strategy is being finalised for carrying out the audit, it added.

"Measures will be taken to maintain cyber protocol and also to check cyber hygiene in all the government departments in order to find out where the problem lies and also clear the entire situation, which would help in taking remedial measures," it said.

The incidents of cybercrimes have increased significantly in recent times, it said.

"Several incidents of cyberattacks have also taken place at various government installations and departments' websites. The websites of Smart city, Dial 112 and public utilities websites also came under cyberattacks, which led to the need for cyber audit," the statement added.

"The cyber audit exercise will be carried out in all the government departments and other government installations. Strategic planning is being prepared for carrying out cyber audits. Cyber-related crime incidents have emerged as the biggest challenge. The cyber gangs' nexus has also come to the fore and swift and stern action will be taken against them," the statement added. PTI PKD ACD

Cybersecurity nodal agency designation mandates comprehensive cyber audits and remediation across government online systems. The state government designated the Economic Offences Unit as the nodal agency for cybersecurity, mandating comprehensive cyber audits of all government departments and installations, requiring remediation of identified discrepancies, and coordinating technical cooperation with specialised agencies to implement standards, maintain cyber hygiene, and enable incident response and enforcement against organised cyber actors.