Parliamentarians on Friday raised concerns over cyber security in the new Parliament building and called upon banks to take adequate steps to secure the financial assets of the public at large. The MPs also stressed on the need to increase cyber security awareness in the country and called for developing a “cyber consciousness index” to gauge it.

Addressing a meeting of the Committee on Information and Communication Technology Management in the Rajya Sabha in the Parliament House Annexe Building, the members heard top officials of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) and the public sector Punjab National Bank.

The committee had met under the chairmanship of AAP member N D Gupta, where the secretary, MeitY gave a presentation to the members on issues of cyber security and the manner in which the ministry and organisations under it are addressing the same.

Measures being put in place to enhance cyber security of Member Services and to secure the new building of the Parliament were also listed during the presentation and panel members raised their concerns and queries to the officials.

Secretary, the Department of Financial Services (DFS) and representatives of the Punjab National Bank were also present to express their views on the regulatory framework and the measures being taken by them on implementing mechanisms for cyber security and digital identity/digital payment mechanisms and the steps being taken to enhance the same.

Sources said panel members told top officials of the bank to ensure that the financial assets of the public at large are secured and raised several queries to them on the issue.

Amid growing cases of cyber security breaches and frauds coming to the fore, the panel is likely to call top officials of private banks in the near future and members would soon undertake field visits to bank headquarters in Mumbai to check the steps taken by banks in this regard, the sources said.

So far, the panel has called officials of the State Bank of India and the Punjab National Bank and raised their concerns on the issue. Steps taken to ensure the security of the members of Parliament at the new Parliament building by the National Informatics Centre (NIC) were also listed by officials and they replied to the members’ concerns on the issue.