Why India Remains Vulnerable to Cyber Attacks

The majority of internet consumers in India have got online only recently and would not be aware of all the dangers that lurk in the world wide web. Already, there are many instances across the country of unsuspecting users becoming easy targets for fraudsters.

  • It is now a proven fact that connecting any strategic infrastructure to the internet makes it vulnerable to security threats. Yet, most users continue to be extremely vulnerable to hacking, data leakages and hijacking.
  • India is a net information exporter. Its information highways point west, carrying with them the data of millions of Indians. This is not a design flaw, but simply reflects the popularity of social media platforms and the lack of any serious effort by the Indian government to restrict the flow of data.
  • Nearly 500 million Indians use the Internet today, but they do not access the Internet from the same devices. The massive gap between the security offered by the cheapest phone in the Indian market and a high-end smartphone makes it impossible for regulators to set legal and technical standards for data protection.

Cert-Fin

Cert-Fin will act as an umbrella Cert for the financial sector and report to Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (Cert-In) at the national level, in accordance with the information technology Act and rules. Cert-Fin will work closely with all financial-sector regulators and stakeholders on issues of cyber security. Cert-Fin is recommended as an independent body, to be set up as a company under Section 8 of the Companies Act, 2013, with a governing board.

It has also been recommended that each financial-sector regulator will have a separate entity that will provide information in real time to Cert-Fin. So, there would a bank-Cert (which would be the Reserve Bank of India), a securities-cert, insurance-cert and pension-cert; all of which will directly report to Cert-Fin.

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