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Govt asks RBI, banks, NPCI to boost cyber security amid India-Pak conflict to protect digital payments and financial systems.
Cyber attack
The Finance Ministry has directed key financial institutions—including the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), major banks, and the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI)—to heighten cybersecurity vigilance in light of escalating tensions between India and Pakistan, Moneycontrol reported on Friday, citing senior government officials.
“Yes. We have issued a detailed advisory on it,” a top government official confirmed to Moneycontrol.
The advisory, issued earlier this week, urges heightened protection across India’s critical financial infrastructure—especially core banking systems, payment gateways, real-time gross settlement systems, and the Unified Payments Interface (UPI), which handles billions of mobile transactions monthly.
India’s digital payments ecosystem, now handling 17–18 billion transactions worth Rs 24 lakh crore every month, forms a crucial part of the country’s financial backbone. Any disruptions to this system could have severe implications for economic stability and national security, officials warned.
The cyber alert comes amid heightened geopolitical risk following the April 22 terror attack in Kashmir’s Pahalgam that killed 26 people, and India’s subsequent military response. On May 8, Indian defence forces repelled a wave of missile and drone attacks launched by Pakistan targeting military bases in Jammu, Pathankot, Udhampur and other sensitive locations.
The government’s advisory follows “Operation Sindoor”—a series of retaliatory Indian airstrikes launched in the early hours of May 8, targeting nine terrorist launch pads across Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.
In coordination with the Finance Ministry’s directive, the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) and the RBI have also separately urged financial institutions to remain on high alert and prepare for potential cyber threats. CERT-In functions under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology and monitors national cybersecurity incidents.
Additionally, the National Critical Information Infrastructure Protection Centre (NCIIPC), part of the National Technical Research Organisation (NTRO), is overseeing the protection of critical digital infrastructure considered vital to national security.
Officials emphasized that while no major breaches have been reported so far, proactive defence is crucial in deterring state-sponsored cyber aggression during times of conflict.
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