Is The Country ready for Cyber Emergency ?

There is no doubt that Indians are the most intelligent in terms of innovation, articulation and orchestration. Most of the technologies are getting developed by redefining the API’s (application programming interface). It depends upon the kind of calls or requests that can be made, how to make them, the data formats that should be used, the conventions to follow, etc. It can also provide extension mechanisms so that users can extend existing functionality in various ways and to varying degrees. An API can be entirely custom, specific to a component, or designed based on an industry-standard to ensure interoperability. An API can specify the interface between an application and the operating system. The design of an API has significant impact on its usage. APIs are one of the more common ways technology companies integrate.

This leads to the fast track digitisation and this fast track without barrier many industries have integrated smart technologies to workflows to drive the consumer experience with the help API integration. At the same time several business framework has focused on digitisation and hyper-efficient payment systems. The COVID-19 pandemic and the resultant disruptions have triggered major innovations, bringing about rapid digitalisation among businesses that are looking for ways to manage cash flows and optimise costs. Businesses that have created a digital footprint are seeking to use that data intelligently. This is making their processes more and more efficient and turning these into profit centres. This brings the attention of the cyber crooks to collect data and share malware to collect and disrupt the process. There is competition among the tech companies and organised hacker community on who will capture data fast. Fast track digitisation is just like infatuation of tech integration.

There is an urgent need to have an independent agency to evaluate all the newer technologies getting introduced by any corporate, BFSI, Start-up and even the Government agencies.

The Internet of things is a technology of hope, and in 2021 some uses of IoT will focus on core health-and-safety initiatives such as building cleaning technologies. Connected devices will continue to define several industries in the coming year. Some trends will continue to gather momentum, fuelling IoT’s importance in 2021, from data-intensive experiences that use IoT devices to basic health-and-safety needs. IoT has seen significant growth in 2020, and as we are on the verge of 2021, the number of devices installed is only expected to grow. As per a report, there will be 35 billion IoT devices installed worldwide by 2021 and 75.44 billion by 2025. Cybersecurity must go right up to the top of national security, and shoring it up on an emergency basis. As India increasingly goes digital, our financial systems, the tax database, the dematerialised accounts in which shares are held, just about everything becomes vulnerable to cyberattacks.

Cybercrime cases jumped by more than 67% till June 2020.The common types of cybercrime were e-commerce scams, phishing, debit/credit cards, mobile wallets, pretending to be customer care representatives and many others. The dangers of cyber-crime have been there for many years, but the increase in the percentage of the population connected to the Internet and the time spent online, combined with the sense of confinement and the anxiety and fear generated from the lockdown, have provided more opportunities for cybercriminals to take advantage of the situation and make more money or create disruption. Online fraud cases are on the rise; the fraudsters manage to obtain confidential details such as date of birth, CVV/PIN numbers, credit/debit card numbers, expiry date and even OTP from gullible customers under the pretext of calling them from the bank’s customer care office.

According to police, after getting the details, the scammers make payments to mobile phone and online payment service providers, which are quite difficult to trace or retrieve. The cyber criminals are mainly targeting senior citizens, children and women.

S Mohini Ratna, Editor, VARINDIA