Modification in Cyber Security and Cyber Resilience Framework of Qualified Registrars to an Issue and Share Transfer Agents (QRTAs)

CIRCULAR
SEBI/HO/MIRSD/TPD/P/CIR/2022/96
July 06, 2022

To
All Qualified Registrars to an Issue / Share Transfer Agents

Dear Sir/ Madam,

Sub: - Modification in Cyber Security and Cyber resilience framework of Qualified Registrars to an Issue and Share Transfer Agents (“QRTAs”)

1. SEBI vide circular dated 08 September 2017, 15 October 2019 and 27 May 2022 prescribed framework for Cyber Security and Cyber Resilience for all Qualified Registrars to an Issue and Share Transfer Agents (QRTAs).

2. In partial modification to Annexure A of SEBI circular dated 08 September 2017 the paragraph-51 shall be read as under:

51. All Cyber-attacks, threats, cyber-incidents and breaches experienced by QRTAs shall be reported to SEBI within 6 hours of noticing / detecting such incidents or being brought to notice about such incidents.

The incident shall also be reported to Indian Computer Emergency Response team (CERT-In) in accordance with the guidelines / directions issued by CERT-In from time to time. Additionally, the QRTAs, whose systems have been identified as “Protected system” by National Critical Information Infrastructure Protection Centre (NCIIPC) shall also report the incident to NCIIPC.

The quarterly reports containing information on cyber-attacks, threats, cyber-incidents and breaches experienced by QRTAs and measures taken to mitigate vulnerabilities, threats and attacks including information on bugs/vulnerabilities/threats that may be useful for other QRTAs shall be

भारतीय प्रतिभूति और विनिमय बोर्ड Securities and Exchange Board of India

submitted to SEBI within 15 days from the quarter ended June, September, December and March of every year. The above information shall be shared through the dedicated e-mail id: rta@sebi.gov.in.

3. The format for reporting as prescribed in the circular dated 15 October 2019 remains unchanged and is attached as Annexure B.

4. QRTAs shall take necessary steps to put in place systems for implementation of the circular.

5. The provisions of the Circular shall come into force with immediate effect.

6. The circular is issued with the approval of the competent authority.

7. This circular is being issued in exercise of powers conferred under Section 11 (1) of the Securities and Exchange Board of India Act, 1992 to protect the interests of investors in securities and to promote the development of, and to regulate the securities market.

Yours faithfully,
Vishal M Padole
Deputy General Manager
MIRSD
Tel. No: 022 26449247
Email ID: vishalp@sebi.gov.in

Annexure - B

Incident Reporting Form

1. Letter / Report Subject -
Name of the intermediary -
SEBI Registration no. -
Type of intermediary -
2. Reporting Periodicity
Year-
 Quarter 1 (Apr-Jun)
 Quarter 2 (Jul-Sep)
 Quarter 3 (Oct-Dec)
 Quarter 4 (Jan-Mar)
3. Designated Officer (Reporting Officer details) -
Name: Organization: Title:
Phone / Fax No: Mobile: Email:
Address:
Cyber-attack / breach observed in Quarter:
( If yes, please fill Annexure C)
( If no, please submit the NIL report) Date & Time Brief information on the Cyber-attack / breached observed Annexure C
1. Physical location of affected computer / network and name of ISP -
2. Date and time incident occurred -
Date: Time:

3. Information of affected system -
IP Address: Computer
/ Host
Name:
Operating System
(incl. Ver. / release
No.):
Last Patched/
Updated:
Hardware
Vendor/ Model:
4. Type of incident -
 Phishing
 Network scanning
/Probing Break- in/Root
Compromise
 Virus/Malicious
Code
 Website
Defacement
 System Misuse
 Spam
 Bot/Botnet
 Email Spoofing
 Denial of Service(DoS)
 Distributed Denial of
Service(DDoS)
 User Account Compromise
 Website
Intrusion
 Social
Engineering
 Technical
Vulnerability
 IP Spoofing
 Ransomware
 Other
5. Description of incident -
6. Unusual behavior/symptoms (Tick the symptoms) -
 System crashes
 New user accounts/ Accounting discrepancies  Failed or successful social engineering attempts  Unexplained, poor system performance  Unaccounted for changes in the DNS tables, router rules, or firewall rules  Unexplained elevation or use of privileges Operation of a program or sniffer device to capture network traffic;  An indicated last time of usage of a user account that does not correspond to the actual last time of usage for that user  A system alarm or similar indication from an intrusion detection tool  Altered home pages, which are usually the intentional target for visibility, or other pages on the Web server  Anomalies  Suspicious probes  Suspicious browsing New files  Changes in file lengths or dates  Attempts to write to system  Data modification or deletion  Denial of service  Door knob rattling  Unusual time of usage  Unusual usage patterns  Unusual log file entries  Presence of new setuid or setgid files Changes in system directories and files  Presence of cracking utilities  Activity during non-working hours or holidays  Other (Please specify)
7. Details of unusual behavior/symptoms -

8. Has this problem been experienced earlier? If yes, details -
9. Agencies notified -
Law Enforcement	Private Agency	Affected Product Vendor	Other
10. IP Address of apparent or suspected source -
Source IP address:	Other information available:
11. How many host(s) are affected -
1 to 10	10 to 100	More than 100
12. Details of actions taken for mitigation and any preventive measure applied -

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