When Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman meets heads of public sector banks (PSBs) in Delhi on Saturday as part of her quarterly performance review, one of the more significant terms on the agenda is not bad loans or wilful defaulters. It will be the increasing amount of cybersecurity incidents, particularly online scams related to banking accounts and cards.
As India gets more and more digital, also increasing is the alarming number of cyber security breaches. Enough for the government to get into a flurry of precautionary measures.
The Reserve Bank of India observed that the amount of card, online banking and internet-related scams have increased by five times in just the April to September six-month period this year.
Already two major data breaches this year have exposed crores of Indian citizens to online hoodlums. In October, an American cybersecurity company claimed that the Aadhaar data of over 81 crore citizens was being offered for sale on the dark web. A similar breach, this time of CoWin data, was reported back in the summer. Last year, a ransomware attack had crippled the computer systems at India’s biggest hospital, the prestigious govt-run All India Institute of Medical Sciences, or AIIMS, in Delhi for days on end.
“The AIIMS Delhi cyberattack is a classic example of how even premier institutes can fall prey to such attacks,” said Nilesh Tribuvan, founder and managing partner of White & Brief, advocates & solicitors. “This is enough to worry the government and authorities as such threats pose a challenge to India’s ambitions of becoming a digital economy.”
While cyberattacks on Indian companies have been on the surge particularly in the wake of Covid-19 when many firms moved to a more digital presence with remote working, the recent advancements in artificial intelligence and deepfakes add a new dimension to the increased chances of threat in the future. Recent findings by the likes of 'PwC Risk Survey — India edition', as well as a study by Palo Alto Networks, hint that it will be the number one threat facing India Inc on the threat radar.
But perhaps even more worrisome are the risks ordinary citizens increasingly face, as life goes more digital in every sphere, exposing them to new dangers. “As mobile phones are increasingly utilised for government digitalisation, cyber threats become a significant challenge for ordinary citizens,” pointed out Tribuvan.
The authorities are also increasingly worried as cybersecurity becomes the new big issue, both by state and non-state actors. Strategy trends indicate that cyber warfare could make a crucial difference in future geopolitical manoeuvres. No wonder, India, the US and Taiwan got together in Delhi for a meeting of their ‘Global Co-operation and Training Framework’ platform recently.
Add to that, of course, the vulnerability of ordinary citizens and the real big fear that AI deepfakes could play spoilsport in the upcoming Lok Sabha poll campaign. No wonder, brainstorming on a roadmap to counter deepfake videos and other new threats in cyberspace is one of the main agendas in the annual meeting of state police chiefs to be held in Jaipur next week.
