India ranks 1st in malicious code related spam globally: Norton

According to a report by Norton (Symantec), 42 million cyber crimes happen in India every year. The report states that about 52% of victims have suffered attacks such as malware, viruses, hacking, scams, fraud and theft. Over 80 people are victimized under various cyber crimes every minute across India.

The report states that 7% of the estimated global price tag of cyber crimes every year comes from India. The estimated price tag in India is $8 n as against the global bill of $110 bn. Security firm Kaspersky ranks India ninth on its list of countries with the highest percentage of computer attacks.

India has also been a victim of cyber intrusions by neighbouring states. As a recent media report by a leading channel reveals, China has repeatedly mounted cyber attacks on Indian websites through its cyber warfare army. India recently released its National Cyber Security Policy 2013 (NCSP 2013). However, according to EC-Council, a professional certification body, India is unlikely to meet the target of creating a workforce of 5, 00,000 cyber security professionals in next five years (as laid out by the NCSP 2013) due to lack of infrastructure and investment.

In this context, a press conference announcing the official launch of The Ground Zero Summit. The press conference introduced Ground Zero Summit 2013 which is to be held in November (7 to 10), 2013 and showcased it as a platform for promoting information security and awareness in the region. The summit will take place over four days with a two day technical conference, followed by two days of hands-on technical workshops on information security. The summit is supported by relevant government associations, bodies and industries working in this space.

Expert consultants from the industry present at the conference were Dhruv Soi (Chairperson, OWASP India), Thomas Kurian Ambattu (VP, Information Security Research Association (ISRA)), Aseem Jakhar (Director, Research, Payatu Technologies Pvt. Ltd.), Rajshekhar Murthy (Director, CERT-ISAC, National Security Database), Rohit Srivastwa (Founder, ClubHack) and Tarun Wig (Founder, Innefu).

This unprecedented collaboration, bringing together government associations and private bodies promises to play a key role in fortifying Indian assets in cyberspace and strengthening national cyber resilience.

Industry Expert, Aseem Jhakar, Founder, nullcon Security Conference said, "2013 has been the year of major revelations from the cyber security perspective. There have been many disclosures on cyber attacks, APTs and surveillance programs. The PRISM program shook the whole world. Then there was the hangover report which suggested private Indian players were involved in cyber espionage activities. We had the malware bounty program initiated by the Govt. at nullcon security conference earlier this year where participants were tasked with reverse engineering of a malware and then suggest ways to stealthily subvert the security of the Command and Control server."