In a revelation highlighting the outrageous levels of security vulnerability in the nation that attempting to race down the digital expressway, the Ministry of Home Affairs today informed Parliament today that more than 700 sites of various central and state government divisions were hacked in the previous four years.
Of a total of 707 websites that reported hacking incidents, 199 were hacked last year, 164 in 2015, 155 in 2014 and 189 in 2013, Minister of State for Home Affairs Kiren Rijiju said in a written reply to Lok Sabha.
Rijiju said a total of 8,348 persons were arrested for their involvement in cyber crimes. He said the website of counter-terrorism force National Security Guard (NSG) was partially defaced and abusive message was posted by unknown hackers on January 1 this year.
“The NSG website which is hosted on National Informatics Centre (NIC) server has been blocked immediately,” the minister added.
The government's demonetisation drive and the resultant cash crunch have led to digital wallet firms witnessing an unprecedented rise in their usage and popularity -- with people using them for everything from buying groceries and vegetables to local travel.
Cyber experts emphasise that as the numbers swell, newer forms of vulnerabilities will be exposed in the digital transactions.
“Regardless of the demonetisation policy, our lives, including our financial lives are steadily moving to a digital environment and so we need to have trust in our institutions — government and private organisations — while recognising there are bad actors out there who can do anything to circumvent any protection that will be put up … But I think, this whole issue is a huge wake up call for India and for the financial sector and the broader economy,” said Jared Ragland, senior director, policy (Asia-Pacific), The Software Alliance, also known as BSA.
“I think the Asia-Pacific region generally is behind Europe and North America in having basic cyber security framework and laws in place, but the entire world is struggling with some of these issues. Probably, India is a little behind some of the other countries at a global level in terms of cyber-security preparedness. It is also a little bit behind countries like Japan and Australia perhaps, in part because Japan and Australia have taken more efforts to identify what is working, with the private sector, to bolster cyber-security,” Ragland added.
(With inputs from agencies)
