Facts and figures
• After China and the U.S., India has the highest number of Internet users. There are also an estimated over 381 million mobile phone subscriptions with Internet connectivity. In the list of online infection risk India ranks 9th and in personal computer across the globe, India ranks 7th.
• A recent survey by McAfee named India next to Brazil, Romania and Mexico the least able to defend against cyber attacks.
• Cyber security threats and hacking attempts in India rose to 22,060 in 2012 from 23 in 2004
What it means
• Cyber terrorism is the convergence of terrorism and cyberspace. It is generally understood to mean unlawful attacks and threats of attacks against computers, networks, and the information stored therein when done to intimidate or coerce a government or its people in furtherance of political or social objectives.
Cyber Threats
Cyber threats can be disaggregated, based on the perpetrators and their motives, into four baskets: cyber espionage, cyberwarfare, cyberterrorism, and cyber crime.
Cyber Warfare - attacking the information systems of other countries for espionage and for disrupting their critical infrastructure.
Why Cyber Security is needed
• Third most populous country after China and India is not any geographical entity but a ‘virtual state’ called facebook!
• The same computing DNA that produced the communications revolution has also created acute vulnerabilities - and attractive terror targets - for societies that depend on cyberspace for national security and economic survival.
• The growing dependency on the information technology (IT) makes cybersecurity a vital component of the India’s national security infrastructure. Lately, data collection, processing, storage, transmission capabilities, mobile, wireless, and cloud computing are increasing in huge numbers and make cyber attacks easily to occur.
• Considered the newest domain in modern warfare,