National Critical Information Infrastructure Protection Center (NCIIIPC), part of NTRO which is the APEX National statutory body responsible for ensuring the protection of National CII (Critical Information Infrastructure), organised 2nd National Level Critical Information Infrastructure Security Exercise (CII SECEX 2024) from 5th April to 14th April 2024. The event was inaugurated by Shri Rajiv Gauba, Cabinet Secretary in the presence of Shri S. Krishnan, Secretary (Meity). The chief guest in the closing ceremony was Prof. Ajay Sood., Principal Scientific Advisor to GOI.

The invitees to the opening/closing ceremony (held at Manekshaw Center, New Delhi) included MDs/ CEOs/ Board members of organisations with Critical Information Infrastructures.

This was a very high-profile event and last year CII SECEX 2023 was inaugurated by Honourable Prime Minister.

This exercise was held simultaneously at 4 locations- Bengaluru, Delhi, Kolkata and Mumbai and included more than 430 participants from about 150 CII organisations (such as ONGC, IOCL, Powergrid, NHPC, BHEL, UIDAI, NIC, CBI, NIA, NCRB etc.) from all 07 National Critical sectors. The participants were divided into a total of 36 Blue Teams (with 10-12 participants in each team).

The exercise included pre-exercise training sessions and a Live Fire exercise on a Blue team-red team pattern. The Live Fire exercise involved cyber-attacks by advanced Red Teamers on simulated vulnerable Cyber infrastructure which was to be defended by blue teams and the high-pressure gruelling exercise lasted over 3 days.

The Top three winning teams were also declared during the closing ceremony on 14th April, 2024.

The team in 3rd position was from Mumbai and the other two teams were from Delhi.

The first position was achieved by the Blue Team BT-10, which was led by Shri Kuldeep Singh, DGM, IT security and Alt. CISO, NTPC Ltd. (Team Leader) and included Shri Kuldeep Singh Yadav, Sr. Manager C&I - OT security from NTPC Ltd. in addition to other team members from different CII organisations.

The team was awarded “Gold” Medals by Principal Scientific Advisor, Padmashri Prof. Ajay Kumar Sood in the presence of Chairman (NTRO) Shri A K Singh and Shri N K Singh, DG(NCIIPC).