Upgrading India ' s cyber security architecture

Certain Facts about India’s Cyber Security Framework

• Around 500 million Indians use the Internet , but never access the Internet from similar devices.
• Apple’s market share in the U.S is 44 per cent, but iPhones  amount for below 1 per cent in India.

India’s cyber infrastructure is vulnerable to four kinds of digital interventions:

• Espionage- that involves intruding into systems to embezzle critical value information.
• Cybercrimes -like electronic fraud or other acts of severe illegal outcomes.
• Attacks- intended at disturbing services or systems for a brief phase.
• War- created by a large-scale and methodical digital attack on the country’s significant cybernetworks.

Measures adopted by Indian Government  to counter Cyber Attacks

• Indian officials have overcome internal cybercrime even as countering major intrusions on a case-by-case basis.
• The Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) formed the post of National Cyber Security Coordinator in 2014, .
• India’s resident organisations have in-house problem solving agencies
• India’s armed forces have their own cushion set-ups to counteract cyber intrusions.

How an Ideal National Cyber Security Agency would look like?

• The first criteria is to accomodate the agency with permanent and semi-permanent staff trained in cyber operations including defending and offending the cyberspace.
• The proposed National Cyber Security Agency (NCSA)  should have a functional headquarters.
• The second criteria is to synchronize the agency’s policy functions and operations.
• The NCSA should have a vision statement for the country’s cyber strategy.

Indian agencies performing cyber operations

• The National Technical Research Organisation,
• The National Intelligence Grid,
• The National Information Board and
• The Ministries of Defence, Home, External Affairs and IT

How to Upgrade the Indian Cyberspace

• The government should follow a two-pronged strategy in the short-term.
• Firstly, promote control in cyberspace as a global standard
• Secondly, the government should summaraise recruitment guidelines to hire and train a batch of cyber specialists.