India’s internet economy is expected to double by 2020 but information security is at risk

S Mohini Ratna
Editor
VARINDIA

Innovation is what leads to sustainability, and sustainable growth in the current entrepreneurship ecosystem will enable India to chart its own success story. In the present scenario, India is the second-highest country in terms of Mobile Internet users with ~391 million users. This is expected to grow rapidly to ~650 million Mobile Internet users by 2020. At the same time, data consumption by 2020 could potentially increase 10-14 times, resulting in a clear roadmap for $250-billion Digital Volcano by 2020. 

E-commerce and financial services are projected to lead this growth. Resultantly, digital economy will have a much broader influence beyond the direct economic impact. Digital adoption has started delivering several citizen-centric social benefits like enhancing ease of doing business, improving access to services and products and transforming governance.  As the new digital paradigm emerges, adapting to change will become critical, but at the same time dynamic changes in the technology landscape, led by digitization, are creating opportunities for cybercriminals.

It is an absolute fact that digitization is happening everywhere, virtually to every business in every industry. When we talk about the security aspect, we always say it is not a matter of ‘if’, rather ‘when’ you will be hacked. Well… when it comes to Digital, it too is not a matter of it will happen. Cybersecurity threats have become more complex, targeted and persistent, modern cyber defences require proactive security operations run by highly trained staff with the experience and expertise to detect and disrupt sophisticated threats.

In the result, digitization brings new risks for cyber-attacks. Cybersecurity in the Digital Economy is the bridge that connects Digital Innovation to business growth enablement. This opens a new door for cybersecurity experts that has grown three times faster than any other IT job role, and training a cybersecurity workforce is a priority for many organizations. This has created a situation of constant risk for organizations not seen at any point in our lifetime. As we increase our connectivity and create new services, we dramatically expand the attack surface. The question is over recorded 50,300 cybersecurity incidents like phishing, website intrusions and defacements, virus and DDOS attacks which were observed in the country during 2016. Lack of strong cybersecurity strategy can impact organization’s innovation and growth because it hinders development of digital offerings and business models.

Lastly, security is in top of mind for the enterprises today, and increasingly, at their board level. Cybersecurity in the Digital Economy is the bridge that connects Digital Innovation to Business growth enablement and security for the Digital Economy must take a top-down strategic approach, heavily influenced at the board level and driven by the C-suite.