Govt steps up cyber defence against AI-enabled threats with sector-wide security exercises

New Delhi [India], July 30 (ANI): In a major push to strengthen India's AI cybersecurity capabilities, the government has conducted cyber security exercises across industries, according to a statement by Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology.
The Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) has deployed AI-driven situational awareness systems and expanded AI-enabled vulnerability assessments of public-facing digital assets in a sandbox environment to identify and mitigate security vulnerabilities.
The ministry added that the government is aware of the evolving cybersecurity threats and challenges, including those arising from AI-enabled attacks.
It further stated that AI can amplify systemic cyber risks by facilitating automated reconnaissance, faster exploitation of vulnerabilities, credential compromise and sophisticated multilingual social engineering campaigns.
"AI-driven situational awareness systems are deployed by the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) to detect malicious domains and phishing activities for necessary mitigation," it said.
Additionally, CERT-In conducted 10 customised cybersecurity exercises and drills during June-July 2026 on the theme "Building Resilience against Frontier AI-driven Cyber Threats."
The exercises brought together 1,470 participants from 345 government and private-sector organisations across key sectors, including power, telecom, banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI), transport, education, healthcare and space, as per the release.
CERT-In operates an automated cyber threat intelligence exchange platform that disseminates tailored alerts to organisations across sectors, enabling them to take proactive measures to identify and mitigate cyber threats.
The release further added CERT-In is one of the international partners to co-sign the joint high-level risk analysis report on Artificial Intelligence (AI) entitled "Building trust in AI through a cyber-risk-based approach," published by the National Cybersecurity Agency for France (ANSSI) in February 2025.
"The Government is committed to ensuring an open, safe, trusted and accountable cyberspace. Several legal, technical and administrative policy measures have been implemented to address the risks posed by AI-enabled cyber threats, enhance cyber resilience, and strengthen incident response capabilities," the release said. (ANI)