Cyber Security Needs Urgent Attention Of Indian Government

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 Outdated and draconian laws like cyber law and telegraph Act of India must also be repealed immediately.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.