Government to Soft Launch Malware Cleaning System on Tuesday

Government will kick start operations of a long-awaited malware and botnet cleaning centre with soft launch on December 20, a programme aimed at automatically disinfecting computers and mobiles from viruses and malicious software for free.

"Major cyber-security initiative of Digital India. Soft Launch of BotNet cleaning centre of India CERT from December 20," Ministry of Electronics and IT, Additional Secretary Ajay Kumar tweeted on Sunday.

Botnet is a network of malicious software that can steal information, take control of device function and carry out cyber-attacks like Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) that prevent access of websites.

Government has earmarked Rs. 100 crores for setting up this facility. The project was expected to be launched in 2014. When contacted, Kumar said, "From December 20, Indian CERT will start informing Internet service providers about infected systems. They will have to synchronise their system to meet the requirement of botnet and malware cleaning centre. ISPs will then alert their customers about infection in their PC or mobile and recommend them downloading of software from website of BotNet centre to remove malware."

The software will be available for free from the BotNet centre, he said. The new system will do away need of installing anti-virus software in PC and mobile phones.

"We are expecting that from around December 26 complete system will be operational," Kumar said.