Social Media…. Top platform for Cybersecurity

S Mohini Ratna Editor VARINDIA India is almost ready with the plan of going digital and is expected to grow in double digits. In this, technology will play the role of an important differentiator that will allow us to think differently. While trends such as cloud, mobility and IoT will enhance connectivity, availability and speed, the increased exposure to the external environment will, however, put enterprises at risk of multi-vector attacks. At the same time, various smart technologies are invading many industries, including payment, e-commerce, cash burn taxi aggregators and smartwatch, as never before. With massive tech companies pumping dollars, this will open a new market for gadget addicts. My question still remains the same – are we secured? Digital is now a priority for most CEOs of industrial companies in India too and we have to accept that digitization is no longer a luxury for organizations. Rather, it is a necessity to drive revenues, efficiency and profitability. Most importantly by integrating new methods of data collection and analysis, companies are able to generate data on product use and refine products to meet the increasing needs of end-customers. Cyber-attacks are not an exclusive IT problem – they have a deep impact on daily business operations. Today, cybercriminals are not only after money and financial information, but are increasingly aware of the value of stolen sensitive data, of how it can be monetized, and how it can influence business dynamics. As social media becomes a major platform for business communication, people share a lot of seemingly innocuous information, which is exactly the kind of data that hackers love to collect and use in phishing campaigns. Under such circumstances, security needs to be more sophisticated. Moving ahead, by 2020, there will be a quarter billion connected vehicles on the road, enabling new in-vehicle services and automated driving capabilities, making connected cars a major element of the Internet of Things (IoT). Connected things will be in use by 2020 and this is going to be a $25-billion market. There again is the need for a robust plan to make things secured. With respect to the Government's vision for Digital India and Smart City initiatives to boost domestic productivity, quality of life and connecting citizens through various schemes and benefits, it has been found that many of the smart city projects are run in silos by government authorities without any consent of the citizens. A suggestion could be that the government should start focussing on open governance to solve certain basic requirements of providing transportation and electricity, where the experience of citizens’ living conditions will be taken into account to transform the future cities to achieve long-term sustainability. Going forward, Digital India will enable state governments and urban local bodies to integrate ICT into their future city master plans, thereby increasing opportunities for IT vendors in the smart city space in the country. This September edition being an Anniversary issue, I want to thank you all our esteemed readers and corporate houses for their generous support and for having stood by us in bringing out this 17th Anniversary special issue and making it a successful one.