India must firm up its policy on cyber attacks
The United States recently announced that the next time the country became a victim of a cyber attack, it would retaliate massively with a cyber attack of its own. It remains to be seen if this is an empty threat. What is certain is that the push will come to shove for the US sooner rather than later. The attack on Sony Pictures’ servers apparently by North Korea to punish the company for producing the comedy film, The Interview, which mocked (and fictionally killed) Kim Jong-un, the North Korean leader, was a wake-up call for the country. And it should serve as a wake-up call for India as well.
India is moving increasingly towards becoming a digital economy. Sales of connected smart phones are increasingly dramatically in India, and in 2015, they should exceed that of non-smart devices. Coupled with e-commerce and net-banking whose usage as a result of more devices and better networks should also increase, India must do more to protect its digital assets. Several private and public sector financial bodies already spend huge sums of money to protect their websites and networks from malicious attacks.
However, Government-led initiatives for network defence are minimal. This is evident in the frequent defacing of websites run by Government bodies. Given the massive amounts of public information available on many websites, these should all be better protected. It is not just public networks that need protection. The Stuxnet virus, which was apparently developed by Israel to derail the Iranian nuclear project, highlights how even networks insulated from the public web can potentially be attacked.
While such attacks exploit human weaknesses like many digital attacks, this doesn't mean that better digital protection cannot be developed. One vital tactic of wars is an economic blockade; that is how the Allies effectively beat Germany in World War I, as militarily the Armies had come to a standstill on the Western front. As economies depend on online and offline networks, cyber attacks can economically devastate a nation. Indian policymakers and soldiers should realise this fact.
However, better protection is only part of what the Government should do. India should actively develop new protection mechanisms — and it has no shortage of digital jockeys. We have the capability to create one of the best such armies in the world. There is no running away from cyber-attackers. Union Cabinet Secretary Ajit Seth has reportedly written to officials pointing out that the Government had been unable to trace the “exact beneficiaries” of cyber attacks on Government establishments due to the complexities of the cyber domain.
That is worrisome, given that cyber attacks on India have gone up according to some estimates, from around 13,000 in 2011 to 62,000 by mid-2014. Most of these attacks, according to a 2014 report by the Computer Emergency Response Team-India, have emanated from countries such as the US, Brazil, Turkey, China, Pakistan, Bangladesh, the UAE and, of course, those in Europe. India has to ensure stricter compliance in matters of sensitive information. Cyber security policy has not only to be more effectively implemented but also re-drawn, keeping in mind the growing incidents of cyber crimes.