INDIA: Cyber Security Needs to be Taken Seriously — Editorial

Cyber security should be on top of the government's list of priorities, declares a 'Times of India' editorial on Apr. 9.

Reacting from the spate of cyber attacks that have been occurring the recent months all over the world — ranging from the hacking of popular search engine Google's servers that resulted in the China-Google fracas to the discovery of the Ghostnet  cyber spying operation last year — the editorial warns that the next attack could be much worse, especially if it targets the Indian subcontinent.

Some excerpts:

"That cyber warfare will increasingly be part of a state's suite of offensive and defensive  mechanisms is indisputable. Indian's booming IT industry and rapidly growing network infrastructure is both an advantage and a vulnerability in this context.

"Our legislative and security measures are struggling to keep pace. The Information Technology Act of 2000 is a catch-all legislation severely lacking in many respects. Government agencies lag in cyber forensic capabilities.

"One way to beef up India's cyber security infrastructure is to bring in the private sector in a big way, with adequate confidentiality clauses."

Visit 'The Times of India' for the full story.