What is cybersecurity?
The practice of safeguarding networks, servers, mobile devices, electronic systems, computers, and data from malicious cyber attacks is called cybersecurity. A cyber attack is an attempt to gain unauthorized access to a computer or network to cause damage. There are many ways by which cyber-attacks may harm your system: they can disable, destroy or disrupt your system or gain control over the system, making you at risk of data theft.
Why is cybersecurity essential?
According to experts, the next major conflict will not be fought over land, air, or sea but over cyberspace. Eric Schmidt, Chairman of Google’s parent company Alphabet, in a speech at the Google Cloud Conference on 8th of March, 2017, said,
“I think big data is so powerful that nation-states will fight over how much data matters.” He added: “He who has the data can do the analytics and the algorithms at the scale that we talked about will provide huge nation-state benefits, in terms of global companies and benefits for their citizens, and so on.”
Data is the most valuable resource we have, and protecting it should be at the highest priority for our country’s welfare and integrity.
Challenges faced in India
As of January 2020, India became the second-largest country in terms of internet users by reaching 560 million. It is expected to go up to 600 million users by the end of 2021. The majority of internet traffic in India uses mobile data. Over 450 million users access the internet from their mobiles.
We communicate and browse media, shop, transfer money, trade stocks and commodities, exchange crucial documents, pay utility bills using our phones. Due to this increasing trend of online transactions, it is essential to provide cybersecurity and data privacy to each user.
According to a survey on cybersecurity that was conducted by the Data Security Council of India (DSCI), the cybersecurity market in India is currently valued at USD 1.97 billion and is expected to grow to USD 3.05 billion by 2022, at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 15.6 % which is close to 1.5 times the global rate.
Security investments are mandatory due to increasing digital growth. Citizen services are being digitized by e-governance initiatives resulting in the expansion of cyberattack surfaces and a need for introducing defence mechanisms at multiple touchpoints such as clouds, bots, and internet of things environments. Some of the key facts have been highlighted from the survey as below:
- Over 12.3 billion mobile applications were downloaded in India in 2018
- The number of people on social networks in the country is expected to grow from 326 million in 2018 to 422 million in 2022, second only to China.
- As per estimates, the digital payments transaction value will grow at a CAGR of 20.2% from approximately USD 64.8 billion in 2019 to USD 135.2 billion in 2023.
- 47.5 billion national e-transactions were recorded in 2019, until November.
As all the systems are getting more interconnected, sophisticated cyberattacks are driven by different motives. As per the estimation, respondents believe that cyberattacks will increase in their sector by 2022. They also think that ‘securing the cloud’ will be a top priority by 2022.
Emerging Trends of Cybercrime
- 44,546 cases of cybercrimes were registered in 2019 as compared to 28,248 in 2018. There was a 63.5% increase in the number of cases.
- The data showed that in 60.4% of cases registered, fraud was the motive followed by sexual exploitation (5.1%) and causing disrepute (4.2%).
- The highest number of cybercrimes cases were registered in Karnataka (12,020), followed by Uttar Pradesh (11,416), Maharashtra (4,967), Telangana (2,691), and Assam (2,231). Delhi accounted for 78 % of cybercrimes.
- In monetary terms, Rs 1.24 trillion is the amount lost in India in 12 months due to cybercrimes.
- 80% of the cyber crimes that take place go unreported.
The 3 Main Challenges in India’s Cybersecurity Approach
- Lack of Cybersecurity Workforce
- Lack of Active Cyber Defence
- External Challenges
What makes India vulnerable to Cyber Attacks
- Targeted information wars are exploiting India’s fault lines (communal disharmony, mass protests, socio-economic disparity).
- Low digital hygiene, awareness, and illiteracy are major factors.
- India ranks 47th according to the UN Cybersecurity Index and ranks 2nd in terms of the number of internet users.
The last five years have seen major cyber-attacks like:
- July 2016 – Union Bank of India Heist
- May 2017 – Data Theft at Zomato
- May 2017 – Wanna Cry Ransomware
- June 2017 – Petya Ransomware
- June 2019 – Aadhar Data Breach
The Way Forward
India must take some initiatives to increase awareness amongst citizens and also invest in strengthening the existing cybersecurity framework. This can be achieved by following these steps:
- Cybersecurity Education: Cybersecurity courses must be incorporated in educational institutions such as central universities, private universities, industry associations, Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs).
- Existing Cybersecurity Framework must be strengthened: Strengthening of National cybersecurity projects such as the National Cyber Coordination Centre (NCCC), National Critical Information Infrastructure Protection Centre (NCIIPC), and the Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT) has to be strengthened manifold and reviewed.
- Promoting Indigenization: Opportunities must be created for developing software to safeguard cybersecurity and digital communications.
