In wake of the continuous technological advancement every second, the dark side of the Internet is getting darker. The world has witnessed recurrent number of big cyber-attacks in the recent times.
These attacks have raised a lot of questions on the reliability of digital platforms and merging it completely in our personal and professional lives. Given this, there is an urgent need to evolve a mechanism to prevent cyber-attacks and take appropriate measures in case of a cyber-breach.
On 31st March 2017, BW Business World held a round table conference session, which brought alive the current state of cyber security in India, the challenges and sustainable solutions.
The panelists for the discussion were industry experts who shared their thoughtful insights in this domain.
The panelists were: Saket Modi , (CEO Lucideus), Dr Pary Aftab (Executive Director and Founder, Cybersafety.in), Arun Kumar Pandey, Digital Forensic Expert.
At a time when everyone is talking about cyber security, it is very important to understand the term “Cyber.” Technology is now changing the way we live. It is an integral part of our lives, and no longer restricted to office automation. India, is leapfrogging to the west on the digital economy.
There are almost 300 million smart phone users in India at present, which means one out of every four Indians is digitally literate. The number of smart phone users has increased from 20 million to 300 million in the past 24 months.
In order to create a participative, transparent, and responsive government, Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched his ambitious “Digital India Programme.” The campaign is a flagship programme of the government of India with a vision to transform India into a digitally empowered society and a knowledge economy.
The issue right now is to create a safe digital ecosystem, which is well regulated, monitored, spreads awareness about the digital space and under a well governed policy.
What we need to understand is that Cyber safety, Cyber Privacy and Cyber Security are all completely different aspects. In India we have the right hardware, the right software, but what we lack is the correct training and awareness. Cyber security affects people as well as businesses.
Dr Parry Aftab believes that India has the right atmosphere brewing for the kind of cyber security networks required in the country. But their right training is required in this area. She also believes raising more ethical hackers can help tackle the situation.
“India has to have more policy minds than engineering minds. If policies are made outside then it won’t address the issues persisting in this country,” Aftab said.
“I want to create a programme in the US for ethical hackers and have a sister programme here in India for the same. I will train kids from grade 7, and make them ready for the cyber space,” she added.
Discussing about the possible solutions Modi said that it is time when we should focus on technologies to combat the existing technologies that we have.
“India is not ready yet in terms of security, information and technology in this space. We have clearly made progress, but a lot more needs to be done. It is a good sign that The PM is so technology savvy,” he said.
Arun Kumar explained about the flaws in the policy for cyber law in the country. He said it is not a problem of flaw in the policy, but in its implementation.
“We should focus more on IT Act, and its awareness to each and every citizen of the country,” Kumar stated.
The key to the lock here lies in an amalgamation of the right education, policy, technology and ethics. This can lead us to a safer cyber world.
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