The government has entrusted an inter-ministerial panel headed by a senior personnel from the National Security Advisory to come up with recommendations to safeguard the country’s telecom networks from potential cyber attacks.

The panel includes senior representatives from the Department of Telecommunications, the Department of Electronics and Information Technology, the Ministry of Law and the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.

The mandate of the panel is to provide legal powers to enforcement agencies to identify and guard India’s telecom networks from cyber attacks. Further, the panel will be responsible for identifying gaps in the Information Technology Act, 2000, which looks after cyber surveillance operations.

The panel’s recommendations are likely to be reviewed by the Committee of Secretaries before being placed for approval before the National Intelligence Board.