Cyber warfare is considered by some defense analysts to be a larger threat than even Al Qaeda or terrorism. What do you understand by Cyber warfare? Outline the cyber threats which India is vulnerable to and bring out the state of the country’s preparedness to deal with the same.

What is cyber warfare?

Cyber warfare refers to state or state-sponsored use of digital attacks to damage, disrupt or espionage against another nation's critical information infrastructure, defence systems, economy or society. Because it is low-cost, deniable and borderless, some analysts rate it a graver threat than conventional terrorism.

Cyber threats to India

• Attacks on critical infrastructure: power grids, banking, telecom, railways and nuclear/defence networks.
• Espionage and data theft targeting government, military and strategic databases.
• Ransomware and malware crippling hospitals, ports and enterprises.
• Disinformation, financial cybercrime and attacks on payment systems.

State of preparedness

• Institutions: CERT-In for incident response, the National Critical Information Infrastructure Protection Centre (NCIIPC), the Defence Cyber Agency and the National Cyber Security Coordinator.
• Policy: the National Cyber Security Policy, 2013 and evolving frameworks.
• Legal backbone: the Information Technology Act, 2000.

Gaps

• Shortage of skilled cyber-security professionals and indigenous hardware/software.
• Fragmented coordination and an outdated, still-pending updated cyber-security strategy.

Way forward

India needs a modern national cyber-security strategy, active cyber-defence capability, public-private partnership, indigenous R&D and international cooperation.

Conclusion

As digitisation deepens, resilient cyber defence is integral to national security and economic sovereignty.