Cyber Security In India

Cyber security in India has been increasingly seen as prerequisite to protect Indian cyberspace. However, it never remained a priority for Indian government and it always received an indifferent treatment.

Cyber security issues in India cannot be ignored in India any more. Even the Indian government has realised this bitter truth. However, this realisation has still not made much difference towards India’s approach to secure its cyberspace in general and critical infrastructure protection in particular.

The scenario has become more complicated when state actors have also joined the cyber attack scenario. In many cases cyber attacks are launched by state sponsored attackers. Such cyber attacks are more stealth and deadly in nature. At times such attacks also remain undetected for years.

The traditional methodology of securing computers by installing anti virus, firewalls and anti malware tools are also ineffective in such a situation. Although ensuring cyber security in absolute terms is next to impossible yet with patience and adequate cyber security skills development, India can develop cyber security capabilities.

There are many missing links that are hindering in the development of cyber security capabilities in India. Not only India must formulate suitable cyber security policy but India must also actually implement the same.

Cyber Security In India: Some Reflections

Cyber security in India is one of the areas that have received a low priority attention of Indian government. Early warnings regarding lack of cyber security in India were given from time to time. However, as the issue has little political significance, it always remained a non existing issue for the political community of India. Naturally, there are many missing links existing in the cyber security of India.

Meanwhile, cyber attacks against India kept on increasing. Strategic and military computers of India were targeted and successfully compromised for months till India became aware of such compromise. Cases of cyber espionage, cyber warfare and cyber terrorism also increased against India, some known and some still unknown. There is no second opinion that the cyber security capabilities of India must be strengthened.

The cyber security of Indian satellites and critical infrastructure is also required to be strengthened. An implementable critical ICT infrastructure policy of India is also required to be formulated as soon as possible. Although the establishment of a national critical information infrastructure protection centre (NCIPC) of India has been proposed, till now no such centre has been established.

The cyber laws and cyber security trends of India 2011 by Perry4Law and Perry4Law Techno Legal Base (PTLB) has clearly showed the cyber security vulnerabilities of India. The cyber law trends of India 2012 have also projected an increased rate of cyber crimes in India and cyber attacks against India in the year 2012. These projections have now come true and India has become really vulnerable to cyber crimes and cyber attacks.

While protecting its cyberspace, India must maintain a balance between national security and civil liberty protection requirements. Human rights protection in Indian cyberspace must be ensured. Even United Nations must actively come in support of human rights in cyberspace. Protecting civil liberties in cyberspace must be a top priority for UN and national governments.

With this background note, we welcome all our readers to this platform. We would cover both national and international cyber security issues, developments, policies and news at this platform. As far as possible, we would also try to add supplemental contents pertaining to cyber forensics, ICT policies, e-discovery, open source movement, cyber security trainings, etc. Thanks for showing interest in our platform and visiting this blog.