Later this year, for a safe, secure, resilient, vibrant, and trusted cyber space, the government is soon going to release a new cyber security strategy. Announcing this, Lt Gen (Dr) Rajesh Pant, National Cybersecurity Coordinator, Prime Minister’s Office, Government of India, said “the strategy would holistically cover the entire ecosystem of cyberspace in India.”
According to him there will be about 80 deliverables coming out of this strategy, and is expected to serve as a guideline to tackle every aspect including cyber audit, building new indigenous capabilities, data as a national resource or governance.
While India holds the 10th position amongst 194 nations in the Global Cyber Security Index 2020, it is the first country in the world which has created a white list instead of blacklist for telecom equipment. Cyber security is a global common and no nation can solve it alone.
He was speaking at an event organized by Public Affairs Forum of India (PAFI) where the theme was ‘Cyber Security in the New Normal.’
“India is one of the top three countries in the world as far as cyber attacks are concerned. Cybercrimes are increasing and attribution is the difficult part and the cyber criminals have started taking advantage of the dark web,” he added.
The global pandemic has allowed cyber criminals to attack more. Cyber crimes in India during the global pandemic have gone up by almost 500 per cent. Also, there are emerging threats from new technologies like drones and IoT devices.
To deal with the growing numbers in cyber crimes, several initiatives have been taken by the government to ensure a safe, secure and trusted cyberspace. Work from home during the global pandemic has exponentially expanded the threat surface.
“There is a good framework in place for cyber security which has become an essential service. Now there are plans to revise the IT Act too,” he added.