India has turned into a cradle of cyber criminals. According to a recent report, one of the fastest evolving digital markets of South-east Asia is ranked amongst the first three countries that are vulnerable to cyber attacks. In 2017 US countered the highest number of cyber attacks followed by China. The cyber attacks in India witnessed a dip but still, the numbers are significantly high.
The government aided security agencies are still struggling to find a grip over this new emerging challenge. Lack of awareness on cyber-security and a fragile legal system is puncturing the defence mechanism that the state is putting in place to combat the cyber threats. As the country is racing towards the digital economy the public and private financial organizations are becoming easy prey of cyber crooks. The Smartphone market in India has also galloped since all the major data and voice call service providers started marketing subsidised data plans. As per reports the data usage in India spiked above 1.2 billion GB in the year 2017.
The government of India and several other key institutions and associations such as Data Security Council of India (DSCI), ASSOCHAM, NASSCOM has laid down a slew of directives and precautionary steps to arrest this menace. Stringent laws are framed to put the cyber criminals in the dock. The government has also started promoting startups that are working on cyber security. Data security is dealt with the highest care to stall further attacks. Indian Banks Association has asked its members to safeguard it public money with the help of cyber insurance. The Indian government has already started to build a cyber security ecosystem to shield the nation’s thriving digital fabric.