'77% cyber attacks are still going unreported'

Uma Sudhindra, Member Governing Board – IIM Vizag

Since the Kargil war we have relearned the timeless lesson that we always do not get to fight wars which we are prepared for or inclined to. On June 27th this year, terror struck at a place not far from Mumbai; however, unlike 26/11 most people did not even realize that a terror has struck. 26/11 was witnessed by the whole world. This attack of 27th June was a quiet attack but yet crippled India’s largest container port - the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust. The terminal with the capability of 1.8 million container units came to a complete halt. The attacker was a malware called Petya and the hackers were faceless attackers from an unknown place. Fortunately, the damage was contained. Now imagine if this has happened in an airport, Delhi Metro, electricity grid or even our nuclear stations. Since the beginning of internet revolution, more than 26, 000 defaced websites and 91 lakh infected systems have been detected in India. This is despite the fact that 77% of cyber attacks are still going unreported. That is the vulnerability of our cyber system and this is like a ticking bomb out here. The smartphones, laptops, applications that we use and search engines all are hackable. Nothing is impregnable.