Cybersecurity: No room for complacency

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Cybersecurity is one of the primary tormentors of mankind nowadays. Though different agencies have reported increasing online and digital frauds recently, India has leapfrogged into the first 10 positions in the world in cybersecurity index in 2020. According to the International Telecommunication Union, an UN body, India has taken a Bob Beamon-type leap of 37 places to grab the 10th place.

The list contains 182 countries with the US at the top spot and Yemen at the last. While the score of the US is 100, Yemen has been given a score of 0. The countries between the US and India (score 97.5) are the UK, Saudi Arabia (both 99.54), Estonia (99.48), South Korea, Singapore, Spain (98.52), Russia, UAE, Malaysia (all 98.06), Lithuania (97.93), Japan (97.82), Canada (97.67) and France (97.6).

While the progress in position is significant, the point to note is that it is a relative performance and an increasing number of fraudsters – all far more intelligent and skillful than the traditional burglar – are constantly sharpening their skills and tools to strike.

India needs to beef up its cybersecurity urgently. A national cybersecurity strategy is being formulated but is yet to be finalised. In May and June there were reports of emails and passwords of many government officials were exposed to hackers following data breach of a few companies. 

In February, too, government officials were targeted. These officers were parts of internal email groups and some were top level officials. While these attacks, often launched from beyond the countries borders, can give access to networks containing crucial information, the common people are constantly being successfully targeted by fraudsters who polish off bank accounts. Banks reported frauds worth as much as Rs 244 crore in FY19-20 related to ATM-debit card, credit card and online banking. NITI Aayog has even underlined the need for a repository of cyberfraudsters.

There is simply no room for complacency in this domain.