India’s Current Status on Cybersecurity & Cyber Hygiene

The ongoing pandemic has kicked life out of gear for most people and brought in a new norm. Almost everything ranging from work, education, socializing, shopping and payment of utility bills have now gone online. With these changes, cyber crimes in the cyber landscape have shot up multi-fold too. Its estimated that around 4 lakh malware and 375 cyber attacks are occurring daily across the country. And this is aside from the voice-based frauds that people have been falling prey to.

New Users

The sudden move towards digitization by the new internet users, especially from the rural and sub-urban areas, has made them more vulnerable to frauds, phishing and data breaches. There is a strong need for citizens to become aware of the dangers of enticing click-baits; these are linked to malware that extract valuable information from the internet users.

Cyber Hygiene

Cyber hygiene refers to the steps and precautions taken by internet users to improve their online security and keep sensitive data safe. Practicing cyber hygiene and not clicking on unknown links is the best solution to staying safe.

Cybersecurity

Cybersecurity on the other hand refers to a body of technologies designed to protect internet-connected systems and programs. These include keeping software, hardware and data from unauthorized access and cyber threats.

People are easily falling prey to cyber crimes through various portals including security flaws in videoconferencing apps and ransomware or malware attacks on digital payment portals. There is a greater need to create awareness about the constant threat in the digital environment for cyber attacks and the need to be constantly on guard when online. Cybersecurity needs to be given the same kind of attention as physical disasters and physical asset management.

Better Policies

While cybersecurity is an ongoing priority, there is now a renewed focus on this sector at the state and central government levels. New policies will soon be coming through to strengthen digital identity protection, data security and transactional security. With this, India is expected to enter an era of cyber resilience and better cybersecurity.

This aggressive move in the field of cybersecurity and cyber hygiene tools is important as people are getting increasingly dependent on computing equipment and smartphones for communication and online banking systems.