The Cyberspace Landscape Of India Is Changing

The recent cyber security updates by Perry4Law and PTLB have indicated that there has been an extraordinary surge in the cyber attacks at a global level. Malware like Stuxnet, Duqu, Flame, Uroburos/Snake, Blackshades, FinFisher, etc have been messing up with computer systems located in different parts of the world.

For instance, Ebay faced sophisticated cyber attacks and as a result of the same it is facing legal actions in United States and European countries. Similarly, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has reported that a hacking group had recently attacked a U.S. public utility and compromised its control system network.

India is also not safe from these cyber attacks as cyber security attacks ate global in nature. Experts believe that the Indian cyberspace must be protected on a priority basis. This would not be an easy task as the new government has received a paralysed cyber security infrastructure in India in heritage. Further, cyber security skills development is also missing in India and we do not have the appropriate cyber professionals to deal with sophisticated cyber attacks.

According to experts, there is an urgent need to formulate cyber warfare policy of India (PDF) so that cyber warfare issues can be effectively managed. Critical infrastructure protection is also required to be ensured in India.

The cyberspace landscape of India is fast changing and if we cannot match its progress we would be left far behind in the cyber security initiatives. Cyber security of India must be strengthened at the policy and legal fronts so that there is a holistic growth and development in this crucial field. Let us also hope that the new government would consider cyber security as an essential part of the national security policy of India.