Cyber security in India has received little
attention from our policy makers from time to time. Successive
governments in India have failed to cater the growing needs for
robust and effective cyber security of India. It is clear that India
not only lacks offensive
and defensive cyber security capabilities but it is not
capable of dealing with sophisticated malware like Stuxnet,
Duqu,
Flame, Uroburos/Snake,
Blackshades,
FinFisher,
Gameover
Zeus, etc. The cyber
security trends in India (Pdf) are not at all convincing.
Cyber security initiatives and projects in India are
negligible in numbers. Even if some projects have been proposed, they
have remained on papers only. Projects like National
Cyber Coordination Centre (NCCC) of India, National
Critical Information Infrastructure Protection Centre (NCIPC) of
India, has etc failed to
materialise so far. The National
Cyber Security Policy of India 2013 also failed to take
off and even if it is implemented it is weak on numerous aspects like
privacy
violation in general and civil
liberties infringement in particular. It would not be
wrong to say that India is a sitting
duck in cyberspace and civil liberties protection regime.
Cyber security breaches
are increasing world over and India is also facing
this problem. The cyber
security challenges before the Narendra Modi government
would not be easy to manage as everything has to be managed from the
beginning. There is a dire need to protect Indian
cyberspace from sophisticated cyber attacks. For instance,
cyber security of critical
infrastructures (Pdf) likes banks,
automated
power grids, satellites,
thermal
power plants, SCADA
systems, etc are vulnerable to cyber attacks from around
the world.
According to New Delhi based techno legal law firm
Perry4Law,
the ultimate solution in this regard is to formulate a techno
legal framework that can safeguard Indian cyberspace in
the best possible manner. A dedicated cyber
security law of India and implementable cyber
crisis management plan is also required. Outdated and
draconian laws like cyber
law and telegraph
Act of India must also be repealed immediately.
In these circumstances cyber security needs urgent
attention of Indian government. In a positive development, the
National Cyber Coordination Centre (NCCC) of India may finally see
the light of the day and may become
functional very soon. The NCCC would help India is
fighting against national and international cyber threats. Very soon
it would be clear how far the BJP government would go to protect
Indian cyberspace.
