In a significant move aimed at securing strategic installations from cyberattacks, the government on Tuesday declared its advanced climate forecasting supercomputer Arunika a protected system under the law.Arunika, the advanced and high-performance computing supercomputer was inaugurated in September 2024 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and is the backbone of extreme weather estimation.A Ministry of Earth Sciences notification today said that to strengthen cybersecurity framework of the critical scientific infrastructure, Arunika High-Performance Computing (HPC) System of the National Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasting (NCMRWF) has been declared a “Protected System” under Section 70(1) of the Information Technology Act, 2000.The notification brings the advanced supercomputing system and its underlying computer resources within the ambit of enhanced statutory protection. “The move is aimed at safeguarding sensitive meteorological data, forecasting models and national-level climate analytics processed by the system,” officials said.Under Section 70 of the IT Act, a computer resource declared as a “protected system” receives the highest level of legal protection against unauthorised access. “This means access, usage or interference without authorisation will attract penal provisions under the law,” government sources said.The Arunika HPC System is central to medium-range weather forecasting, numerical weather prediction modelling and disaster early-warning services across the country. Given its strategic importance for agriculture, aviation, maritime operations and disaster management, the government has classified it as critical information infrastructure.Officials said the step aligns with the government’s broader efforts to fortify digital infrastructure handling critical scientific and national data against emerging cyber threats.Who can access Arunika?As per Section 70(2) of the Act, access to the protected system will be strictly role-based and limited to designated NCMRWF and Earth Sciences Ministry employees authorised by the Head of NCMRWF. Authorised team members of contractual Managed Service Providers or third-party vendors will be granted need-based access. External consultants, regulators, government officials, auditors and stakeholders authorised by the NCMRWF and MoES on a case-to-case basis.What is Arunika?Arunika is High-Performance Computing System located at the National Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasting (NCMRWF) Noida. It operates with a capacity of 8.24 PetaFLOPS to improve accuracy in predicting extreme events.