Cyber Warfare Against India And Its Defenses

Cyber Warfare is a concept that is well known at both national and international levels. In one form or other and in lesser degree or more, Cyber Warfare has been accepted as a reality in the present Cyber World. However, Cyber Warfare concept still haunts the international community and till now we have no dedicated Legal Framework for Cyber Warfare at international level.

Till Harmonised Cyber Warfare Legal Framework emerges, piecemeal efforts would try to fill the void in this regard. Not very late NATO requested Cyber Security cooperation form India. We should not wait for others to develop our own Cyber Warfare Capabilities in India. In fact, Cyber Warfare Policy of India must be urgently formulated and immediately implemented. The same must be part and parcel of India’s National Cyber Security Policy.

Cyber Security in India needs to be strengthened keeping in mind the growing cases of Cyber Attacks and Cyber Espionage attacks against India. Even Cyber Warfare against India is well known and is not new. Ensuring 100% cyber security is next to impossible. However, we can minimise Cyber Attacks. India has remained indifferent towards Cyber Security for long. This resulted in poor Cyber Security Capabilities and Expertise. It is only now that India has paid attention to this crucial field and it is still not too late.

India should definitely step up/accelerate its efforts to strengthen Cyber Security along with Traditional National Security Capabilities. Internet and Hidden Internet has opened new frontiers and unforeseen challenges before India. Internet is increasingly been used to not only propagate Terrorism propaganda but also to recruit new Terrorists.

To tackle Terrorists’ use of Internet, International Cooperation amongst Governments, Organisations, Internet companies and telcos could be helpful. For the time being, Cyber Criminals/Terrorists are one step ahead of various Governments and International Cooperation activities.

New technologies have also caused problems for India. For instance, Voice-over-Internet Protocol (VOIP) is one of the technical challenges that Law Enforcement and Intelligence Agencies across the world are finding difficult to tackle. However, of late strong Encryption usage has emerged as more troublesome that VOIP. Further, VOIP can be intercepted in certain circumstances.

Developing of Cyber Security Capabilities and Expertise is immediately required in India. There is also an urgent need to develop both Preventive and Offensive Cyber Security Capabilities of India. The sooner it is done the better it would be for the National Security of India.

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.