According to latest study, In India, there is 350 percent increase in cybercrime cases registered under the Information Technology (IT) Act, 2000 from the year of 2011 to 2014.
The study titled ‘Protecting interconnected systems in the cyber era’ was conducted by ASSOCHAM jointly with PwC.
The study highlighted that Operational systems are increasingly subject to cyber-attacks, as many are built around legacy technologies with weaker protocols that are inherently more vulnerable.
The continued and regular sharing of cyber security intelligence and insights is essential to improving the resiliency of these systems and processes from emerging cyber risks.
Attackers can gain control of vital systems such as nuclear plants, railways, transportation or hospitals that can subsequently lead to dire consequences such as power failures, water pollution or floods, disruption of transportation systems and loss of life, noted the study.
In the US alone, there has been an increase of nearly 50 percent in reported cyber incidents against its critical infrastructure from 2012 to 2015.
The study revealed that in the past attacks have been mostly initiated from the countries such as US, Turkey, China, Brazil, Pakistan, Algeria, Turkey, Europe, and the UAE, and with the growing adoption of internet and smartphone India has emerged as one of the most favorite countries among cyber criminals.
In India, the National Critical Information Infrastructure Protection Centre (NCIIPC) has been identified as the nodal agency under the National Technical Research Organization for the protection of critical information infrastructure.
The formal roles and responsibilities of NCIIPC include cooperation strategies, issuing guidelines, advisories and coordination with CERTIn.
NCIIPC has defined controls for the critical infrastructure sectors power and energy; banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI); ICT; transportation; and e-governance and strategic public enterprises.
The Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) has also reported a surge in the number of incidents handled by it, with close to 50,000 security incidents in 2015.
A strong collaboration between well-equipped IT, OT and CT teams is also necessary for a unified approach to risk management and incident response.