India, which has entered the digital transformation, needs an 'impenetrable' security shield

- 290% increase in cyber attacks in 2021

- The biggest difference between the actual number of cyber attacks and the number of reported attacks in countries like India, Mexico, South Korea, Finland, Oman and Spain.

India is currently going through a critical phase of digital transformation and the emphasis is on IT technology, digitization in every sector, industry. While digitization has many advantages, it also has some risks and disadvantages. With the acceptance of digitization by a large number of industries, India is facing sophisticated cyber problems.

According to a cyber threat report, in the year 2021, India faced a cyber attack not only on its vital - complex infrastructure and digital financial systems but also on its numerous small businesses - which entered the digital age after the lockdown.

The Chinese Double Dragon (APT21) and the North Korean Lazarus (APT3) are trying their best to prevent a malware cyber attack targeting the country's vital infrastructure and financial services.

The growing cyber attack of the North Korean cyber-attacker APT Group is a matter of concern as it targets embassies and government information agencies. Companies that have never reported a cyber attack have also been targeted. Countries like India, Mexico, South Korea, Finland, Oman and Spain have the widest gap between the actual number of cyber attacks and the number of reported cyber attacks. While in Japan and some other countries this difference is very small.

According to the report, due to the widespread use of stolen AI-based tools, India is facing the problem of cyber attack which has helped to create highly secretive and serious malware viruses, increasing availability of connectivity and bandwidth, increasing level of digital risk, steady increase in digital transactions in the country. Geopolitical tensions, the growing footfall of financial services and the growing number of advanced persistent threat groups are worrisome.

The number of cyber-attacks in India has risen alarmingly by 20% during the year 2021. There are indications that India is becoming a testing ground for malware attacks. These cyber attacks are also used to study the resistance and resistance mechanisms of organizations, to improve the ability of future successful cyber attacks on other countries, to steal data for ransom, to test new malware for their power and tactics, and finally to study malware propagation streams (patterns). Is.

Compared to the year 2020, the number of cyber attacks on infrastructure, including important government departments, has increased by 20% in 2021. Similarly, the number of cyber attacks in the banking and finance sector has increased by 9 per cent, in the defense sector by 4 per cent and in the manufacturing sector by 101 per cent.

During the second six months of 2021, a large number of botnets were created to target companies in the manufacturing, defense, utilities, supply chain and oil and gas infrastructure sectors. Botnet is the number of Internet-connected devices, each of which operates one or more bots. Botnets are used to carry out cyber attacks, steal data, send spam and make the attacker access the device and its connections.

During the ICC Men's T20 World Cup match between India and Pakistan in October last year, a serious cyber attack was noticed coming directly from neighboring enemy Pakistan. The number of inbound cyber attacks caught by physical and virtual honeypots in India reached nearly three lakh in a single day. By midnight Indian time on October 6, the number of cyber attacks had risen sharply to 2.5 lakh.

Opposition groups appear to be keenly interested in launching cyber attacks on India's vital infrastructure projects. Stolen information is leaked on platforms like the Dark Web.

In the year 2021, a number of cyber attacks were carried out on government agencies and companies and industries in India. India's digital infrastructure needs to be secured to address and tackle this problem.