Government Sector Most Vulnerable To Cyber-Attacks: NCSC

"Cybercrime increased by 500 per cent because of the pandemic and vulnerable sectors were targeted with the government being the most vulnerable. The telecom sector was targeted as a nation, the financial sector was targeted, then transportation and the energy sector," said National Cyber Security Coordinator, Lt. Gen (Retd) Rajesh Pant.

He further stated that the government was able to avoid major cyber-attacks or threats which helped India to jump 37 places on the Global Cybersecurity Index, securing rank 10 in the latest rankings.

Speaking at the third edition of Microsoft's ExpertSpeak on Tuesday, Pant highlighted that India now needs a National Cybersecurity Strategy which is in the cabinet for the final stamp. Apart from the strategy he also stressed on having a governance structure for cybersecurity as at present there is no central apex organisation which is responsible for cybersecurity of the nation.

Keshav Dhakad, General Counsel, Microsoft India, emphasised on having a strong public private partnership to fight cybercrime. "The fact that cyber criminals are becoming more organized and well-resourced, makes it necessary to have global harmonization. We need nations, industries and businesses to come together otherwise criminals will always stay ahead of the game," he said.

Dhakad also highlighted Microsoft's partnership with MeitY to skill security leaders in government entities across the nation in cybersecurity and initiatives such as CyberShikshaa program along with the Data Security Council of India (DSCI), to create a pool of skilled women security professionals in the country.

Addressing BW Businessworld's question on the trends which have emerged during the Pandemic in cyber-attacks on critical infrastructure, Pant said two broad trends have emerged related to ransomware and supply chain. He explained, "Ransomware cases against the health sector saw a rise during the Pandemic and the other being the use of a safe channel like a software update which contains malware to carry out attacks."

Dhakad on the other hand stated that nation state threats have emerged during this period. "We have highlighted it in our Digital Defense Report 2021, the nation state threats beyond the organized crime have kind off targeted the critical infrastructure and the protection lies in secure cloud where 70-80% of security and the threat intelligence and response is managed and it is becoming part of the critical infrastructure itself." he added.