Are We Secure?

As India becoming the hub of cyber crime of the world? One might not agree
with the figures, but experts like Ahmedabad based Sunny Vaghela believe that
there has been an increase of 200% in cyber crime cases in India in the last
three years. These are crimes against individuals, organizations, and the
government. These are financial frauds where bank account information is stolen
on the net and money siphoned off; hate crimes where sleaze MMS clips are
circulated through cellphones; as well as attacks defacing key ministry sites to
mock the establishment and the country. This is not something to be just brushed
aside.

How geared up is India to handle this challenge. Again, experts believe that
corporate India is pretty well geared up, though new types of attacks and
challenges both from within as well as outside keep coming up almost everyday.

But most of the people in the administration including the police,
unfortunately are almost clueless about what cyber crime is all about and the
basic things needed to prevent it. Similarly, almost 100% of Indian citizens do
not have much idea. So, many peopleyoung and oldare joining social networking
sites, which are said to be the most fertile place for catching unsuspecting
people.

If every aspect of life is going to be based on IT and communications
infrastructure, and if that infrastructure has weak links, then we better sit up
and do something about it. I spoke to a few people randomly, and my assessment
is that Indias preparedness for handling cyber crime would not be more than
three, on a scale of one to ten; and awareness efforts in this direction would
be almost zero. So what does India need to do? Our country already is an
established knowledge economy, and now aspires to be a global superpower of
sorts.

Creating awareness is the first step in fighting cyber crime, just like sex
education is important to prevent sex crimes, this is my firm belief. I am not
aware of too many organizations that teach their employees working on computers
and smartphones, the dos and donts of cyber security. Similarly, every school
is laying emphasis on computers for its students and asking them to surf the
net, but very few schools are actually telling thestudents about the risks. Have
you ever seen a government advertisement that aims at educating the millions of
young cyber cafe visitors in cities and towns across the country about the
pitfalls?

Clearly, we have a long way to go, and perhaps in a very short time. I think
once awareness comes, everything will fall in place, and these people will
demand for security systems and processes. Organizations as well as governments
will have to get their act together.

Ibrahim Ahmad

ibrahima@cybermedia.co.in