Sunday 20 March 2011

Cyber Security Strategy In India

Cyber security in India is facing indifference of Indian government and policy makers. Not much attention is paid to cyber security and its practical utilisation in India. Naturally, Indian cyberspace is vulnerable to all sorts of cyber attacks. Even on the front of cyber security research and training in India, we are not performing well.

We urgently need cyber security strategy in India that clearly stipulates the roles, functions and responsibilities of government departments and public sector undertaking engaged in governmental works.

Cyber security has attained a centre stage world over these days. Issues like cyber law, cyber security, cyber forensics, cyber war, cyber espionage, etc are on rise on a daily basis. This has also mandated that there must be an international harmonisation of laws regarding cyber law and best practices regarding cyber security. Although the entire world is moving in the direction of cyber security, India prefers to adopt a weak cyber law and no cyber security model.

Cyber security in India has not received much attention of the policy makers of India. Similarly, cyber security research and training is also missing in India. Till now we have just one techno-legal cyber security research and training centre in India (CSRTCI). The same is managed by Perry4Law and Perry4Law Techno Legal Base (PTLB). India has not formulated any cyber security policy or strategy. The only cyber security policy and cyber security strategy of India has been provided by Mr. Praveen Dalal, CEO of Perry4Law and CSRTCI.

The CSRTCI has been managing the techno-legal aspects of cyber security for long. Some of the areas of its specialisation pertain to cyber law, cyber security, cyber forensics, cyber war, cyber terrorism, cyber espionage, corporate espionage, critical ICT infrastructure protection, CCTNS, Natgrid, NCTC, etc.

India should also work upon wireless security as presently most of the wireless connections are insecure in India. As per the research of CSRTCI, a majority of wireless users had either not used any security mechanisms or they were very weak and easily guessable. Cyber security is a mental state of mind and not hardware or software.

As a matter of fact, many world class cyber security software are open source and freely available. Similarly, many good penetration testing software are freely available. India needs good cyber security policy and strategy and effective training to prevent cyber threats from damaging its institutions and economy.