Centre slow to set up strict cyber security norms

Hyderabad: Despite India suffering quite a few cyberattacks, an expert claims the government has been slow to address the problem by framing a strict cyber security policy.

“Compared to the US where there is a greater awareness about cybersecurity, India is lagging behind both in terms of cyber security policies and disclosures,” CompTIA regional director Pradipto Chakrabarty told this newspaper.

Due to the lack of regulations in India, companies other than those in financial services don’t have to disclose the breach and its impact to the consumer.

“Outside India, they have a threat repository where by law the companies have to declare the threat and its implications on the consumers. In India, we don’t have anything of that sort. There is a long way to go for us,” Mr Chakrabarty said.

With the government pushing its ‘Digital India’ initiative and top business leaders citing cyberthreats as one of the top five risks to their business in 2018,  he said the Central government needs to speed up a bit more.

“People are waking up to cyber threats. In the last year’s Budget the government allocated funds to Cert-In to help fight such threats. The government is working towards it but the speed leaves a lot to be desired,” he said.

CompTIA, of which Mr Chakrabarty is a part of, is a not-for-profit trade association that focuses on certifying people with the latest IT trends.

“We interact at the ground level and we see there is a huge need for skilled professional,” he said.

Mr Chakrabarty, however, felt that the lack of skilled people in cybersecurity is a more immediate concern.  

“Infrastructure and skills are the two things that needs to be addressed urgently. While infrastructure can be upgraded very fast with a bit of investment, skills is something which has a long term effect as it provides a nominal return on investment,” he said.

He added that the mentality that a cyber breach in companies bring shame needs to shed.

Drawing a football analogy, Mr Chakrabarty said, “Attackers are there to attack you for the entire match and may score one or two goals. It’s the job of a defender to stop the attacks. Similarly, cybercriminals will probe for weakness with newer methods. Only skilled people can help defend the attack. Till date, there has been no system across the world that cannot be breached.”

He concluded by saying that the people needs to regularly update their defence.