1 India is 2nd largest consumer for smart devices and 2nd largest number of Internet users after China.
2 Widespread digital illiteracy makes Indian citizens highly susceptible to cyber fraud, theft, etc.
3 Substandard devices: Inadequate security infrastructure.
4 Rampant use of unlicensed software and underpaid licenses as well.
5 Under-reporting: People do not report cybercrime because of lack of awareness!
6 Accelerated digital adoption, over a short span of time eg. After Jio's launch, users of internet increased but digital literacy remains low.
Now read some data regarding this
• Govt data shows that in 2019 alone, India witnessed 94 lakh instances of cybersecurity breaches.
• In terms of hacking of State and Central govt websites, Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) data shows that a total of 336 websites belonging to Central Ministries, Departments, and State govts were hacked between 2017-19.
• According to Nasscom’s Data Security Council of India (DSCI) report 2019, India witnessed the 2nd highest number of cyber attacks in the world between 2016-18.
• On 22 Sep 2020, the Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology (MeITY) told the Parliament that Indian citizens, commercial and legal entities faced almost 7 lakh cyber attacks till August 2020 alone.
IBM’s data breach report India, says:
1 Indian companies incurred an average of ₹140 million total costs of a data breach in 2020, an increase of 9.4% from 2019.
2 Top 3 root causes of data breaches were categorised as 53% malicious attack, 26% system glitch & 21% human error.
3. Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd. (NPCIL) has confirmed that a malware had infected its system at the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant (KKNPP).
It was similar to "Stuxnet" virus attack on an Iranian nuclear facility in 2018!
4. The healthcare sector, in particular, faces major risks with cyberattacks on prominent companies being recorded in 2020 (eg cyber attacks on Dr.Reddy’s Laboratories and Lupin)
According to Russia's Casper Sky Report, MSME sector in India is highly vulnerable!!
Few well known incidents:
• In July 2016, a phishing email sent to an employee at Union Bank of India, hackers accessed the credentials to execute a fund transfer, unsuccessfully swindling Union Bank of India of $171 million.
• The infamous Wannacry Ransomware attack even impacted servers in Indian states such as Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal.
• F&B giant, Haldiram’s were demanded $750,000 as part of a ransomware attack.
• Popular online grocery service provider, Bigbasket faced a data breach by a group named “Shinyhunters” who reportedly have compromised the data of more than 2 million users!
• In May 2020, it was reported that data of 40 million Truecaller Indian users was reportedly put out for sale on the dark web.
So how good are we handling these crimes? Very bad.
The literacy regarding these crimes is the worst.