"Cyber Swachhta Kendra" the free antivirus provided by Govt. Of India

Not everything seems sarkaari about the Indian government’s latest effort to make internet safer.

“50,362 cyber-security incidents were reported in 2016,” said PP Chaudhary, Minister of State for Electronics and IT, while launching the ‘Cyber Swachhta Kendra’, a bouquet of applications ‘to create a secure cyber space’. It has been released under the Government’s ‘Digital India’ initiative.
Link - http://www.cyberswachhtakendra.gov.in

On the official website, ‘Cyber Swachhta Kendra’ is written with full 

nationalistic fervour of a tricoloured font. It’s difficult to keep your 

hand from saluting at every instance. The ‘Botnet Cleaning and 

Malware Analysis Centre’ offers a slew of tools, such as a 

USB safety scanner and a browser security extension. But those are 

hidden away in a different page, and the primary focus remains the 

‘botnet cleaner’.

What’s a ‘botnet’, you ask? Read on.

A bot is a software, which is often identified as the villain of your 

personal computer or smartphones. It’s a malware, which has the 

potential of handing over the control of your device from a remote 

location, and then taking commands or exposing all your data to 

the remote client. A network of bots is called a botnet.

If your system becomes a part of a botnet, it can leave you vulnerable 

to whatever data you may type, such as your bank account details and 

other information.

And the government wishes to keep you safe from such attacks. Sweet, 

isn’t it? Almost. Because the government ‘encourages’ you to download 

QuickHeal – a private company’s software. But wasn’t it supposed to 

be developed by the Ministry of State for Electronics and IT? And 

what’s with the in-your-face branding?

Anyway, we trusted the government like a good naagrik and 

proceeded to download the application which is only available for a 

Windows PC.

The download button takes us to the company’s website, away from 

the government domain. It asks us to download the free tool. We are 

skeptical, but happy, because free hai bro.

We still went ahead and installed the BOT Removal Tool, 

because 

ye strange tool, kar gaya chull.

Observe how eagerly the ‘I Agree’ button sits here, waiting 

encircled in excitement.

A few key points condensed from the window above:

• Copyright

This Tool and the accompanying written materials are the 

property of Quick Heal and are copyrighted. (Okay, it’s fine)

• No Warranty (Yes, it’s actually written in all caps)

USE OF THE TOOL IS AT YOUR SOLE RISK... QUICK HEAL 

DOES NOT WARRANT...THAT DEFECTS IN THE TOOL OR 

SERVICES WILL BE CORRECTED. SHOULD THE TOOL OR 

SERVICES PROVE DEFECTIVE, YOU ASSUME THE ENTIRE 

COST OF ALL NECESSARY SERVICING, REPAIR OR 

CORRECTION. (What The....!!)

• Disclosure

Notwithstanding anything, Quick Heal reserves the right to 

disclose any information in response to/that it is required to 

be shared, disclosed or made available to any governmental, 

administrative, regulatory or judicial authority under any law 

or regulation applicable to Quick Heal. (But I trusted you 

dear government’s friend...)

We agree to those terms. The first window pops up, and 

politely welcomes you.

Quick quiz time: How many QuickHeals can you see in the 

window above? And how many mentions of the Ministry or 

the Digital India initiative? Well...

Next, we get a barebones menu like this. We go for a quick 

scan.

We interrupt the scan to quicken the quick scan. And 

land at a window which technically tells that, ‘Haha. 

Good you downloaded this. But kya ukhaad lia? For full 

protection, download our AntiVirus too. The website is here”

No, we didn’t install the anti-virus. We clicked Finish, 

our scan was over.

But the story’s not. The government must not become 

a proxy server to such third party applications, which 

explicitly mention in their ‘Terms & Conditions’ that 

they can share user data on their will.

We appreciate the ministry’s active stance on the rising 

instances of cyber threats, but it would need a lot more 

than a branded exercise to create a sense of trust in the 

end user. A small assurance for us, but a giant leap for 

Digital India.