Bengaluru Metro Rail Corporation Ltd (BMRCL) has awarded a Rs 4 crore contract to Bharat Electronics Ltd (BEL) to establish a dedicated Security Operations Centre (SOC), aimed at protecting the metro’s IT and CCTV infrastructure from growing cyber threats.

The SOC will operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week from BMRCL’s Byappanahalli premises. It will continuously monitor the metro’s IT and CCTV networks, analyse security logs and identify suspicious activity that could point to a cyberattack.

BEL will act as the system integrator for the project. The centre will bring several cybersecurity tools onto a single platform, including security information and event management, security orchestration and automated response, threat intelligence and other monitoring systems.

Artificial intelligence and machine learning will also be used to identify potential threats. The system will analyse network traffic, security events, vulnerability information and external threat intelligence to detect unusual activity in real time.

The SOC will specifically monitor logs generated by BMRCL’s CCTV Video Management Systems. This will help identify unusual IP addresses, unauthorised access attempts and other suspicious activity. However, the centre will not directly monitor every individual CCTV camera.

The system is also designed to protect against malware, ransomware and rootkits while providing BMRCL with a centralised view of cybersecurity risks across its network.

BMRCL plans to expand the SOC’s monitoring capabilities to other critical metro systems in later phases. The corporation will also assess its cybersecurity framework against the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Cybersecurity Framework to identify gaps and improve its overall cyber resilience.

The contract highlights the growing importance of cybersecurity for critical public infrastructure. As metro networks become increasingly dependent on connected IT systems, CCTV, digital ticketing and other technologies, protecting these systems from cyberattacks has become an important part of maintaining safe and reliable operations.

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