Why we need to do more to repel cyber attacks
Development of indigenous technology and security solutions are imperative for a safer digital landscape
Our digital terrain is increasingly under
attack. First came ‘WannaCry’, a ransomware that locked up lakhs of computers
spread over 150 countries demanding that the victims pay $ 300 or more to get
their data back. Within days, this was followed by ‘Fireball’, a malware that
could turn web browsers into zombies, and cause victims damage ranging from the
theft, spying and manipulation of their data, to download of dangerous files
onto their computers.
Fireball, probably the largest cyber attack
ever, is estimated to have hit more than 250 million computers worldwide, with
over 25 million of them in India. Notably, both the attacks are linked to
Chinese cyber criminals. The same period also saw a major security breach,
where an unidentified hacker stole the data of more than 17 million users from
the food delivery startup - Zomato. This string of attacks, all within the last
four weeks, is ominous for a post-demonetisation India trying to transform itself
into a digital economy.
The Internet of Things (IoT) is expected to
be one of the pillars of our modern-day digitalindustrial economy. Every
physical device, from our phones and household appliances, to sensors and
vehicles, to large-scale infrastructure systems including nuclear plants,
already have their control and monitoring procedures digitised, and connected
to the internet.
The Indian Government created a nodal agency,
Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT) under the DIT, and a National Technical
Research Organisation (NTRO) under the NSA in 2004. Even afterwards, some of
our most sensitive departments from the PMO, MHA and MoD, besides the PCs of
several senior officials have been subjected to repetitive digital infiltration
attempts, from groups such as Dantis Network, a Chinese espionage group,
confirmed a 2016 report by Russian security firm, Kaspersky.
Cyber warfare is highly asymmetric, where the
perpetrator could sit in any location across the globe, and target military or
civilian systems. Cyber threat awareness campaigns, along with regular updates
and installations of security solutions, would mitigate the assault
effectiveness. WannaCry only affected computers running on a previous version
of Windows operating system, those without the latest security patch.
A large proportion of technology components
in our critical sectors like communications, energy, banking and defence are
imports, a worrying scenario during this turbulent era of unstable geopolitical
alignments. Development of homegrown technology across sectors, along with
complementary indigenous security solutions is also imperative for a safer
digital landscape.
Source
| Hindustan Times | 13 June 2017
Regards
Pralhad Jadhav
Senior Manager @ Knowledge
Repository
Khaitan
& Co
Upcoming
Event | MANLIBNET 17th
Annual International Conference on 15-16 September 2017 at Jaipuria, Noida,
India
No comments:
Post a Comment