NEW DELHI, July 22 (RIA Novosti) – India has become a land of no resistance for hackers, and now the target is also large enterprises and business executives, Vinay Mohan Kwatra, Joint Secretary at Ministry of External Affairs responsible for the Counter Terrorism and Cyber Security, said Monday.
“Hacking is no more aimed at attaining technological superiority, but for the monetary gains,” Kwatra said.
“Cyber crime is the greatest threat for organizations' survival today,” the joint secretary underscored.
Cyber security in India has long been an alien concept for the Indian government. The government is currently not in a position to tackle the cyber security challenges of India with its current approach and policies.
“Cyber crime is growing and the methods are constantly evolving - we see no abatement in attacks on banks’ infrastructure. There is no organization which is immune from such an attack," Kwatra added.
“The scope and size of breaches is exploding, making the reputation and trust of businesses stand at a risk and increasingly compromising with the personal and critical information of consumers like card numbers, account numbers and password details,” the official said.
According to the pundit, “cybercrimes in India have cost about Rs 24,630 crore that is $4 billion in 2013. Internet frauds in India have alone cost $4 billion that is about Rs 24,630 crore in 2013, as now the cyber criminals are incorporating more sophisticated ways such as ransomware and spear phishing.”
“India is a sitting duck in the cyberspace protection regime. It cannot be tackled by India due to lack of offensive and defensive cyber security capabilities. There is no nodal ministry to deal with cybercrimes and security," Rajeev Chandrasekhar, Member of Parliament and an entrepreneur added.
“Cyber security breaches are increasing world over and India must be ‘cyber prepared’ to deal with the same. The cyber security challenges before the Narendra Modi government are not easy to manage and Indian cyberspace must be protected on a Priority Basis,” the lawmaker said.
In the first five months of 2014, the cyber security arm of the India’s state-run Computer Emergency Response Team reported 62,189 cyber security incidents, according to a government report in the parliament. It also said that 9,174 Indian websites were hacked during the same period.
