Cyber
security issues in India have added a new variety of
challenges for India. Till now cyber
security in India and its challenges and problems are well
known and India has also realised that urgent attention in this
direction is needed. For instance, the cyber
security challenges for the smart grids in India were
realised during the recent power outrage in India.
This is just the beginning of the cyber security
journey of India. Critical
infrastructure protection in India is not undertaken in
the manner required. Even we have no critical
ICT infrastructure protection policy of India that
can provide norms and best practices for critical infrastructure
protection in India.
On top of it, stealth and sophisticated malware like
Stuxnet, Flame, Shamoon
and Duqu
have already proved that critical infrastructures around the world
like power
grids, nuclear
facilities, satellites,
defense
networks, governmental
informatics infrastructures, etc are vulnerable to both
known and unknown cyber attacks.
There are many concepts that were not even
acknowledged by India a few years back. For instance, concepts like
cyber
warfare against India and its defenses, cyber
terrorism against India and its defences and solutions,
cyber
security in India and its challenges and problems, cyber
espionage against India and its challenges, solutions and defences,
etc were never considered to be a threat by India.
Now it is well known that these concepts are not
just theoretical concepts but actual and potential threats to any
nation. India has also realised this bitter truth that also without
much loss of crucial information and data.
Of course, strategic computers at Indian defence
forces, governmental departments, etc were successfully breached and
compromised. In many cases, India was not even aware of such
compromise and there may be incidences where such compromise are
still present and are undetected.
As on date we have neither a strong cyber law nor
effective cyber
security capabilities in India. Further, if we analyse the
cyber security reflections
the trend is really troublesome. The cyber
law, cyber
crimes and cyber
security trends by Perry4Law
and Perry4Law Techno Legal Base (PTLB)
have shown the loopholes of Indian cyber security capabilities.
We at Perry4Law and PTLB strongly recommend that
Indian government must stress really hard upon developing both
defensive and offensive cyber security capabilities. The sooner it is
done the better it would be for the national security of India in
general and cyber security of India in particular.
