Cyber Espionage In India

Cyber espionage is an area that has recently attracted the attentions of Indian government and corporate houses alike. Both Indian government and corporate houses are the biggest loosers from cyber espionage. Sensitive information on national security and trade secrets and commercial information has been occasionally stolen through cyber espionage in India.

India has been a victim of cyber espionage on many occasions where crackers operating in foreign jurisdictions regularly attack Indian computers and have successfully taken out sensitive information. International community is stressing upon enhancement of their cyber security capabilities unlike India.

As a result of this apathy, India is facing serious cyber threats. With the growing cyber threats against India like cyber terrorism, cyber warfare, cyber espionage, etc, it is very much required to have good national cyber security policy of India.

Homeland Security of India must be strengthened and in order to do so we must take care of issues like Cyber Law, Cyber Security, Cyber Espionage, Cyber Terrorism, Cyber Warfare, etc, informs Praveen Dalal, managing partner of New Delhi based law firm Perry4Law and CEO of the exclusive techno legal cyber security research, training and educational centre of India.

Cyber espionage is not only committed for commercial benefits but it may also be motivated by patriotic feelings resulting in cyber assaults on businesses and other governmental computer systems.

Cyber Espionage may be committed by an insider or an outsider with the help of Internet and computer. The problem is that Cyber Espionage is inexpensive and relatively easy to commit and it is also difficult to prove with absolute certainty, says Dalal. Having an effective Cyber Security Mechanism at place can help in prevention of majority of Cyber Espionage issues, but there is no full proof method of preventing Cyber Espionage, claims Dalal. With adequate resources and time, a Cracker can penetrate and exploit the intended target, says Dalal.

Cyber Security in India has not received much attention of Indian government and there is not even a Cyber Security Policy of India. In fact India is vulnerable to cyber espionage, cyber crimes, cyber terrorism and many similar cyber threats. India is not serious at all regarding digital issues and others are taking advantage of this political will vacuum.

Increasing Cyber Security Readiness With Adaptive Threat Management

Cyber security in India has yet to take a good start. There are many factors that ail cyber security of India. This is primarily due to that fact that we have no cyber security policy and strategy in India. Without a cyber security policy, cyber security cannot grow in India.

Cyber security is not only essential for safeguarding national cyber assets but also for securing private assets of individuals and corporations. This is the reason why much importance should be given to cyber security initiatives in India.

Cyber security must also be seen as a sound business strategy. When organisations and businesses are connected to always on networks and Internet, it is of great business value that such computer systems must be strongly secured from cyber attacks, says Praveen Dalal, managing partner of New Delhi based Law Firm Perry4Law and CEO of exclusive techno legal cyber security research, training and educational centre of India. Even a temporary shut down of such crucial business computers may have significant business losses, opines Dalal.

Recently, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) reiterated the importance of cyber security for banking and financial sectors of India. RBI has declared that all banks would have to create a position of chief information officers (CIOs) as well as steering committees on information security at the board level at the earliest. RBI also mandated cyber due diligence for banks in India.

Companies and business houses must understand the importance of increasing cyber security readiness and corresponding adaptive threat management, opines Dalal. They must understand the importance of e-discovery practices, incidence response, first responder’s roles, cyber due diligence, etc. If these companies and business houses have a sound e-discovery mechanism, good cyber security readiness model and adaptive threat management policy, many frauds can be anticipated and prevented before they occur, suggests Dalal.

India has to cover a long gap before it can ensure cyber security readiness and adaptive threat management. With the help of cyber security research centre of India not only suitable cyber security polices for India can be formulated but good cyber security readiness can be ensured.