Context:
Recent sunburst cybersecurity attacks on government bodies, corporations and even think-tanks around the world have highlighted the need for a strong and sophisticated cyber security regime in India.
Challenges faced by cybersecurity frameworks:
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Rising cyber espionage:
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Some nation-states have very strong cyber-attack capabilities and use them fairly readily in a world where large-scale conventional wars have become less likely.
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The cyber domain is especially anarchic, which means that the “cyber strong can do what they can, and the cyber weak must suffer what they must.”
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It also permits extreme asymmetry, enabling small countries like Israel and Singapore, or regimes like North Korea, to wield vastly disproportionate power within the domain.
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Investments in cybersecurity discourage lower-grade attackers and divert them to seek softer targets elsewhere.
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This, in turn, means that Indian networks must be as well-defended as their foreign peers, as a relative weakness will make us more attractive targets.
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Cybersecurity and cyber defence require the government, private sector, academia, civil society and citizens to collaborate intimately in a non-hierarchical, networked fashion.
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Lack of understanding of comprehensive cyber strategy
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Bars development of effective international laws and norms.
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Way forward:
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Creating strong privacy and data protection laws: which keep both corporate and state power in check.
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Civil-military cooperation: requiring the government to have “tentacles” in telecom and private networks. Civil-military collaboration requires unambiguous civil-military separation.
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Generating trust: To create trust, we must clearly define rights, legal roles and responsibilities of the government, private sector and citizens, and scrupulously respect them.
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Measures like declaring cyber strategies, creating formal structures, appointing experts and allocating budgets, can only work in an environment of mutual trust.
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Well trained cybersecurity personnel and equipment: to be embedded across public, private and academic networks.