India Needs Indigenous Tools to Protect its Cyberspace: PwC

Creation of indigenous tools along with building human capacity with relevant capabilities is imperative to secure India’s cyberspace. While the Government should create a robust policy environment and ensure adequate technology support, businesses should not limit its efforts towards cyber resilience merely for compliance, but practice self-regulation. This is according to a report by PwC-Assocham, ‘Securing the Nations Cyberspace’.

Citizen participation in mitigating cyber risks is also becoming increasingly important. Promoting a ‘cyber safe culture’ within citizens for responsible cyber behavior will be key to ensuring security of India in cyberspace, the report said. The UK, US and Australia have benefitted from national public awareness campaigns to drive behaviourial change on cyber security.

Sivarama Krishnan, Partner & Leader - Cyber Security, PwC India said, “Cyber threats can cause crisis that can not only lead to national threats, but also affect business continuity, cause financial and reputation loss. Therefore, it is in the interest of businesses that cyber security becomes a priority and not just a mandate to comply with. It is critical that all economic participants in a country pay attention to cyber security and develop adequate measures to identify, protect, detect, respond and recover processes and capabilities in the face of threats. Businesses today need to urgently and proactively invest in it.”

The report stresses on the need for an inclusive approach to create a secure business ecosystem, where the Government, industry sectors, standard bodies and business all have to play their role in creating a secure environment.

“Apart from the Government and enterprises, India’s academic institutions also have a key role to play in this fight for cyber security. Academia and industry need to collaborate to generate interest and find innovative solutions to cyber security issues. This collaboration is also needed to ensure India has the trained manpower needed to implement its cyber strategies.” Krishnan added.

Based on PwC’s analysis of cyber security readiness of 60+ countries, a national cyber security strategy can be categorised into four building blocks to provide holistic coverage and sufficient focus:

1: Protection of Government assets, infrastructure and systems from cyber threats is paramount for the upkeep of our socio-economic health and military might. It is vital for safety, security, growth and sustenance of the nation’s economy, protection of its citizens, wealth and infrastructure.

2: A healthy and resilient cyber ecosystem is required for the enterprises to effectively contribute in the progress of the nation. For this to succeed, all the stakeholders need to collaborate to cohesively contribute to security.

3: A society driven by cyber safe culture is less susceptible to cyber adversaries. Creating awareness and training people on cyber security are required to attain a true cyber secure society.

4: Creation of indigenous tools, human capacity and capability is imperative to not only protect Indian cyber space but also to make India globally competitive in cyber security.