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 Page 1 of 5submitted 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 Page 2 of 5Annexure - 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 3 (Oct-Dec)  Quarter 2 (Jul-Sep)  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: Page 3 of 53. Information of affected system - IP Address: Computer Operating System Last Patched/ Hardware / Host (incl. Ver. / release Updated: Vendor/ Model: Name: No.): 4. Type of incident -  Phishing  Spam  Website  Network scanning  Bot/Botnet Intrusion /Probing Break-  Email Spoofing  Social in/Root  Denial of Service(DoS) Engineering Compromise  Distributed Denial of  Technical  Virus/Malicious Service(DDoS) Vulnerability Code  User Account Compromise  IP Spoofing  Website  Ransomware Defacement  Other  System Misuse 5. Description of incident - 6. Unusual behavior/symptoms (Tick the symptoms) -  System crashes  Anomalies  New user accounts/ Accounting  Suspicious probes discrepancies  Suspicious browsing New  Failed or successful social engineering files attempts  Changes in file lengths or  Unexplained, poor system performance dates  Unaccounted for changes in the DNS  Attempts to write to system tables, router rules, or firewall rules  Data modification or deletion  Unexplained elevation or use of privileges  Denial of service Operation of a program or sniffer device to  Door knob rattling capture network traffic;  Unusual time of usage  An indicated last time of usage of a user  Unusual usage patterns account that does not correspond to the  Unusual log file entries actual last time of usage for that user  Presence of new setuid or  A system alarm or similar indication from setgid files Changes in an intrusion detection tool system directories and files  Altered home pages, which are usually  Presence of cracking utilities the intentional target for visibility, or other  Activity during non-working pages on the Web server hours or holidays  Other (Please specify) 7. Details of unusual behavior/symptoms - Page 4 of 58. 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 - ***** Page 5 of 5