According to experts, budget 2020 should allocate a special fund to establish a cybersecurity framework in India.

India is the biggest attacked nation in the cyber world, said the National Cyber Security Coordinator Lt Gen Rajesh Pant during the launch of Cyber Security Centre of Excellence (CCoE). Reason for that is the lack of cyber hygiene and technical debt in the software infrastructure of the country. What it means is that it lacks security patches against newly discovered vulnerabilities. 

And, that is the reason why India needs a bigger cybersecurity budget for 2020. It is evident from the fact that hundreds of potential software vulnerabilities are discovered each day in global software systems. Therefore the nation needs to put in resources to ensure that it’s thriving the digital ecosystem remains protected from hackers, both private and state-sponsored. 

Attacks like ransomware, email phishing, or others like crypto-mining and trojans may remain hidden across IT systems until full-fledged attacks are unleashed. Investigators across India have been urging the government for years now to take preventative measures and allocate much larger funds to safeguard, monitor and patch systems, many of which are critical to national security. 

“As we are witnessing rapid adoption of technology in every sector, the government has surely put India on a digital innovation fast track to achieving the $5 trillion economy. This advent has also led to cybersecurity and data protection becoming key concerns in businesses and government agencies. Attacks keep getting more advanced, and there is less talent available to manage it,” explained Murali Urs, Country Manager-India of Barracuda Networks.

The lack of cybersecurity skills is another issue which may need budgetary fund allocation. Students should be taught about common threats such as malware, levels of attack, including endpoint security, network security and tools like firewalls, and so on. Education and basic literacy for cybersecurity should be part of the school curriculum, too, according to experts.

According to Nasscom, the increasing cyber-attacks and data protection laws are expected to create 1 million jobs and $35 billion opportunities for India by 2025. So, this could be an opportunity for individuals interested in cybersecurity.

Rakesh Kharwal, Managing Director, India/South Asia & ASEAN, Cyberbit, said “We are anticipating additional budget allocation in 2020 for the national cybersecurity programmers and at least 10% of the technology budget for cybersecurity initiatives. The government must also add stimulus to the market segment and the economy at large in 2020. Perhaps, a good way of doing it can be to include simulation-based cybersecurity training solutions like Cyber Range in the Skill India campaign. It will help in addressing the gap of 1 million professionals in the Indian cybersecurity industry.”

Technology policy think tanks and cyber experts advocates have also pointed to the lack of encryption, security and cryptographic standards that plague India’s IT requirements, and which are the root of most data publicly known breaches. The government has access to state of the art resources, yet according to experts, something as basic as government websites can be found in unencrypted and lacking security standards.

“With the expanding number of breaches happening across the country along with government websites getting hacked, the need of building a secure framework for all institutions is very critical, and we hope to see more budget 2020 funds being allocated to ensure cybersecurity. There should be a clear cybersecurity framework for encouraging businesses to partner more closely with government agencies, to share threat information in ways that will help in keeping consumers and companies more aware and protected,” said Murali Urs.

The Need For Specialised Cybersecurity Budget

Given the scale of India’s growing digital sector and fintech, many leaders and RBI have been recommending a to set up a board for a country-wide Cyber Security Policy which gives a needed framework and the strategy to tackle cyber threats. 

Admiral Mohit Gupta, head of the recently created Defence Cyber Agency (DCA) also stated recently that India requires a separate law, budgetary allocation and a task force to solve cybercrime at the country-wide level. Others have urged that the Cyber Security Policy should be separate from the IT/IS policy.

“From an Industry point, the government should emphasise on creating specialised Cyber Security Incubation Centers and R&D Labs to have more product companies. Further, we look forward to incentivisation for startups in standard testing certifications and open testing labs accessible to startups on the subscription model,” according to Karmesh Gupta, Co-founder of WiJungle.

India Cybersecurity Infrastructure Needs A Revamp 

Many cities in India and even in the West are vulnerable to advanced cyber-attacks- By utilising the network and server-side software vulnerabilities, threat actors are successful at launching cyber attacks. According to cyber experts, the issue lies in weak IT infrastructure in many government departments in India. Moreover, companies and government offices in smaller offices may still have outdated or unpatched software not kept with the latest security patches. Therefore, those places are still juicy targets for malicious actors.

Anjani Kommisetti, Country Manager – India & SAARC, Raritan & Servertech shared views on the infrastructure issue and said, “Last year, the government’s focus was more on elections, and we saw a low action on IT infrastructure projects. This year in 2020 we are hopeful to see increased investments that will encourage initiatives to faster achieve the digital economy mission by 2030.”

“The government has taken multiple initiatives to strengthen cyberspace in India. However, the government needs to emphasise more on the infrastructure, and a lot of systems need better hardware, proper software audits and execution of proposed projects,” Murali Urs, Country Manager of Barracuda Networks added.

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