Ramifications of MeitY declaring specific organizations as protected systems

Recently, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) declared ICICI Bank as a protected system. In essence, it means that any unauthorised access attempt would be deemed an act of cyber terrorism. This declaration was made through a gazette notification by the Government of India as a “Protected System” under the IT Act.

What are the ramifications of such a development? Can this be done by any organization? Is there a set of guidelines for getting branded as ‘Protected System’ are some of the many questions that come to mind. Will the government proactively will do anything to protect such a system? Or, does the announcement have no real value? Are these aspects covered in the Act or in the National Critical Information Infrastructure Protection Centre regulations? ETCIO spoke to a number of technology and security experts on the issue.