Cyber Defense - biggest challenge to Indian

C yber Defense is a biggest challenge to Indian security system. The firm painted a detailed picture of how countries are defending their critical networks in the report, "In the Crossfire: Critical Infrastructure in the Age of Cyberwar". The report said as data is increasingly stored online, security is increasing in sophistication. However, hackers and cyber-criminals are still managing to stay a step ahead.  Cyber-criminals could take advantage of the vulnerability in the IT security systems here and cripple financial services there. It’s reminiscent of an action movie. The year is 2017 and two rival countries - India and China - are fighting a war. The conflict is not being fought with guns, tanks and aircraft but computers, bots, viruses and Trojans. The soldiers are not troops, but hackers. The scenario was enacted by the Indian military last year in a cyber-warfare simulation called the "Divine Matrix". Officially, the likelihood of a Chinese cyber-strike has since been played down. This is a big mistake, experts say, given the poor state of India's cyber-security. An easy hunting ground. Worse, the vulnerability not only poses a threat to the government, military, and infrastructure, it also carries a huge risk for international businesses that have outsourced IT operations or bought software in India. India is under-prepared is well known, and experts often raise concerns about how the government's IT systems could be crippled in a war. While that threat is valid, I think the real worry is someone attacking the IT systems of the private sector. India could be used as a route to attack the IT systems of other countries, since it is linked to important networks like the United States' financial sector. India's US$60 billion software industry derives over 85% of its revenues from abroad. The US's financial services, retail, manufacturing, infrastructure (like electricity and telecoms) as well as medical services account for 60% of these export revenues. Across the world more critical infrastructure is being connected to the Internet, leaving it more vulnerable, says McAfee, with India having the lowest rate of security measures for its infrastructure. India also topped McAfee's charts for malicious traffic in Asia. Although China last year cut its security budgets by 40% for government-sponsored cyber-security cooperation among operators of critical infrastructure, it still had the highest rate of participation, said McAfee. India in particular faces more frequent cyber-attacks. For instance, in 2009, more than 6,000 websites were hacked and defaced, compared to 1,752 in 2006. A global cyber-spy network that allegedly originated in China, said India was particularly vulnerable. If you look at the statistics of the institutions or the targets that were attacked by Ghost Net when it attacked global systems, India was by far the hardest hit by that operation. "ndia is a software superpower yet for some reason the country can't seem to get its cyber-security act together. Legally, India is also seen as an easy target. The Indian IT act and related local laws are oriented towards primarily addressing fraud and copyright violations; they are not security oriented. The other major issue is cost. Indian is touted as a low-cost outsourcing destination and "security is always an expensive proposition, Often Indian service providers cannot adopt security measures that on a par with international standards. India can ill-afford to ignore this new challenge to its security, information warfare can start anywhere and carry on silently in peace time, comparing it to "acupuncture warfare" a term that refers to seeking out a country's weak points. India should adopt an inter-ministerial approach to dealing with the emerging threat. A special agency should be formed to spearhead India's cyber-war efforts, and the country should have its own national cyber-security adviser, he maintains. But above all even if government and specific security agencies are wake up to the threats of information warfare, the country's corporate sector is still oblivious. It is time that this sector wakes up too. A recent investigation by McAfee, the software security firm, revealed that as cyber-attacks rise globally, India is emerging as Essential web services have come under simulated attacks. important first step towards working together to combat potential online threats to essential infrastructure. The exercise is intended to help expose short-comings in existing procedures for combating attacks. As the attacks escalated, cyber security centers had to find ever more ways to route traffic through to key services and sites. The exercise also tested if communication channels, set up to help spread the word about attacks, were robust in the face of a developing threat and if the information shared over them was relevant.