Framework Based Approach for the Mitigation of Insider Threats in E-governance IT Infrastructure

M Hari Haran

Abstract: E-governance has made massive inroads in the way the government delivers services to its citizens. To enhance and empower this electronic service delivery mechanism, the government of India established a strong IT Infrastructure at the state level to deliver the e-governance services. This e-governance IT Infrastructure comprises the following 3 core components: State Data Centre (SDC), State Wide Area Network (SWAN) and the Common Service Centres (CSC). The state governments have taken forward the mandate of delivering the e-governance services to the stakeholders through these cores IT Infrastructure components. Any IT Infrastructure environment is exposed to a certain degree of threats and vulnerabilities propagating from different sources in different forms. This paper focuses on one particular threat to the e-governance IT Infrastructure i. e. , The Insider Threat. This paper identifies key stakeholders who are the probable Insiders from an e-governance IT Infrastructure perspective and outlines the various threats and vulnerabilities that might arise out due to the activities of the Insider and finally, proposes a robust framework mechanism for early detection and mitigation of such Insider threats.

Keywords: e-governance, IT Infrastructure, Cyber Security, Insider Threats