very important current affairs and Science and technology topic for pre as well as mains…. just read VPN what is vpn, why in news.
Why in news
India’s cybersecurity agency passed a rule mandating VPN providers to record and keep their customers’ logs for 180 days. It also asked these firms to collect and store customer data for up to five years. It further mandated that any cybercrime recorded must be reported to the CERT within 6 hours of the crime.
The new directives, if passed, will be effective from June 28.
Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) directions are applicable to data centres, virtual private server (VPS) providers, cloud service providers, virtual asset service providers, virtual asset exchange providers, custodian wallet providers and Government organisations.
Firms that provide Internet proxy-like services through VPN technologies also come under the ambit of the new rule. Corporate entities are not under the scanner.
What is a virtual server, and what are its uses?
A virtual server is a simulated server environment built on an actual physical server. It recreates the functionality of a dedicated physical server. The virtual twin functions like a physical server that runs software. It uses resources of the physical server.
Multiple virtual servers can run on a single physical server. Virtualising servers helps reallocate resources for changing workloads. Converting one physical server into multiple virtual servers allows organisations to use processing power and resources more efficiently by running multiple operating systems and applications on one partitioned server.
Running multiple operating systems and applications on a single physical machine reduces the cost as it consumes less space, hardware. Virtualisation also reduces cost as maintaining a virtual server infrastructure is low compared to physical server infrastructure.It estimated that 254.9 million Indians have had their accounts breached since 2004 and raised its concern that collecting excessive amounts of data within Indian jurisdiction without robust protection mechanisms could lead to even more breaches.After India’s cybersecurity agency passed a rule mandating VPN providers to record and keep their customers’ logs for 180 days, several prominent VPN providers said they would move operations out of IndiaA virtual server is a simulated server environment built on an actual physical server.
It recreates the functionality of a dedicated physical server, but offers higher security than the latter Service providers who do not have a physical presence in India but offer services to the users in the country, have to designate a point of contact to liaise with CERT-In.
source – The hindu