Patching the gaps in India’s cybersecurity
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Doctrinal clarity and institutional coherence are essential for a robust cybersecurity posture
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On Sunday, February 28, there was a sensational report in
The New York Times,
China appears to warn India: push too hard and the lights could go out, based on investigations by a United States-based cybersecurity firm. It raised the possibility that the power outage in Mumbai, on October 13, 2020, could have been the result of an attack by a Chinese state-sponsored group. Maharashtra’s Home Minister acknowledged that a report by the Maharashtra Cyber Cell showed that the grid failure was potentially the result of “cyber sabotage”. Meanwhile, the Union Power Ministry denied that the grid failure was linked to any cybersecurity incident, and blamed human error for it. We cannot say who is right since not enough information is available in the public domain. And therein lies the rub.
There is a clear recommendation about digital forensics, about the need to collect digital evidence and how to do it. The "chain of custody" will also be outlined.
Declare a cyber security emergency March 3, 2021, 12:06 AM IST
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An expert report that cited a cyberattack as cause for the massive grid failure and blackout that hit Mumbai and adjoining areas on October 12 has been countered by Union Power Minister R K Singh. GoI has attributed the blackout to ‘human error’, not a hacking attempt. Whatever be the cause of that specific outage, shoring up cybersecurity is of critical import. With rapid digitisation, our vital installations, dam sluice-gate operations or financial markets, and even government accounts, are all vulnerable to cyberattacks, which are mostly anonymous and difficult to attribute to specific actors, either State, non-State, or both. In cyberspace, Advance Persistent Threats (APT) executed by anonymous hackers can often go unnoticed for long periods. Hence the need for proa
View from India: Accelerated digital transformation brings cyber security to the fore theiet.org - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from theiet.org Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.