Context: The Ministry of Railways has asked the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) to educate its officials on Internet ethics, cyber hygiene and best practices in the use of IT equipment, including mobile phones. 
Background

• The Railway Board said a number of incidents had come to notice regarding breaches in various IT applications.
• A majority of them were applications related. 
• Incidents occurred due to “improper handling of the IT assets by the personnel”.
• Lack of awareness: There are a number of officials who are unaware of the Internet ethics and cyber hygiene.

Key Points

• To provide Cyber security training to staffs Ministry of Railways has joined hands with the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC).  The training will educate its officials on Internet ethics, cyber hygiene and best practices in the use of IT equipment, including mobile phones.
• This is a part of C-DAC’s National Cyber Security Strategy. The training was decided based on the recent cyberattacks across the railway network during the ongoing pandemic.

Use of IT infrastructure in Railways

• The Indian Railways uses IT infrastructure for the Passenger Reservation System (PRS). PRS is the nationwide online passenger reservation and ticketing system for railways.
• E-payment is also provided as part of the Freight Operations Information System(FOIS).

Why cyber security training is needed?

• The PRS includes passengers identities, proof of address, passenger mobile number and net banking/card payment details. So any cyber breach will endanger the sensitive data of the passengers.
• Indian Railways has seen a number of cyber breaches in various IT applications of railways. For example, illegal applications were used to book tickets, bypassing the railway firewall.
• These incidents occurred due to improper handling of the IT assets by the personnel.
• Further, these breaches increased after the lockdown due to an increase in electronic modes of communication in official working. So cyber security training is much needed.
• Hence, it was necessary that all railway officials took responsibility and follow adequate procedures when using IT infrastructure. This is important for ensuring confidentiality, privacy in dealing with official information.

Additional Information
Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC)

• It is an Indian autonomous scientific society, operating under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology.
• It was created in 1987, originally as the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing Technology (C-DACT). 
• This was in response to issues purchasing supercomputers from foreign sources. 
• After being denied a supercomputer by the United States in 1987, due to military use concerns, India started a programme to develop an indigenous supercomputer and C-DAC was created as part of this programme. 
• Supercomputers were considered a double-edged weapon capable of assisting in the development of nuclear weapons.