9. Discuss the potential threats of Cyber attack and the security framework to prevent it. (150 words) 10M
Ans. Cyber attacks in the recent time have become one of the most important threats to every nation in one way or the other. These attacks on the digital infrastructure pose multidimensional threats like
Destabilising Critical Infrastructure Cyber attacks can cripple the digital infrastructure related to national security, banking industry, stock exchanges, health related services etc. These can completely challenge the sovereign government and make it sit on its knees.
For Espionage Cyber attacks are used to take out some critical information from the data of any security forces, political parties, corporate houses etc. Then this information can be used for unscrupulous activities.
For Extortion Cyber attacks like the recent one i.e. ransomware was used to extort money in bitcoins along with for extracting information about the debit cards of the individuals.
Threat to Privacy These attacks also pose serious threat to the individual's privacy as private information can be taken out using spywares.
What we need is a good security framework to tackle these attacks. The present framework at the international and national level consists of the following elements.
At the international level now ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers), the agency which provides domain names and regulates IP addresses will now be run by the multistakeholders approach so that the monopoly of the USA over internet will be lifted.
At the national level India has CERT-IN (Critical Emergency Response Team) which gives early warning signals and counter response to any cyber attack. India also has NCIIPC (National Critical Information Infrastructure Protection Centre) for acting in response to a cyber attack on critical infrastructure.
Along with these, India has also formed National Cyber Security Policy and NTRO (National Technical Research Organisation) to train cyber security personnels and to provide research infrastructure at the level of National Security Advisor (NSA).
All these measures however have not functioned to the level of their capacity and proved to be less effective in stopping or countering cyber attacks. What we need is effective functioning of these organisations to get
protected from these ever increasing cyber attacks.
Ans. Cyber attacks in the recent time have become one of the most important threats to every nation in one way or the other. These attacks on the digital infrastructure pose multidimensional threats like
Destabilising Critical Infrastructure Cyber attacks can cripple the digital infrastructure related to national security, banking industry, stock exchanges, health related services etc. These can completely challenge the sovereign government and make it sit on its knees.
For Espionage Cyber attacks are used to take out some critical information from the data of any security forces, political parties, corporate houses etc. Then this information can be used for unscrupulous activities.
For Extortion Cyber attacks like the recent one i.e. ransomware was used to extort money in bitcoins along with for extracting information about the debit cards of the individuals.
Threat to Privacy These attacks also pose serious threat to the individual's privacy as private information can be taken out using spywares.
What we need is a good security framework to tackle these attacks. The present framework at the international and national level consists of the following elements.
At the international level now ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers), the agency which provides domain names and regulates IP addresses will now be run by the multistakeholders approach so that the monopoly of the USA over internet will be lifted.
At the national level India has CERT-IN (Critical Emergency Response Team) which gives early warning signals and counter response to any cyber attack. India also has NCIIPC (National Critical Information Infrastructure Protection Centre) for acting in response to a cyber attack on critical infrastructure.
Along with these, India has also formed National Cyber Security Policy and NTRO (National Technical Research Organisation) to train cyber security personnels and to provide research infrastructure at the level of National Security Advisor (NSA).
All these measures however have not functioned to the level of their capacity and proved to be less effective in stopping or countering cyber attacks. What we need is effective functioning of these organisations to get
protected from these ever increasing cyber attacks.