According to the Minister of State for Electronics and Information and Technology, India saw 13.91 lakh cyber security events in 2022. However, these numbers don’t give a complete picture of the cyber security issues in the country because they only contain what has been reported to and traced by the CERT-In (Indian Computer Emergency Response Team).
Cyber-attacks cause substantial financial losses and may lead to the violation of sensitive user data. The latest digitalization boom has increased cybersecurity issues, mainly infrastructure breakdowns because of identity theft, ransomware, and cyberattacks.
Cybersecurity challenges in India
There are several common cybersecurity risks that Indian businesses and users face. They include:
Phishing
Phishing is a social engineering cyberattack commonly utilized to steal user information, such as credit card data and login credentials. Upon accessing confidential information, hackers don’t block it. They instead use it for their benefit, including illegal money transfers and online shopping. Phishing remains a significant challenge in India’s cybersecurity because the demographic isn’t entirely knowledgeable about handling confidential data.
Ransomware
As per a survey’s findings, 73% of Indian companies surveyed in 2022 faced a successful ransomware attack, with 45% being attacked more than once. Ransomware attacks include hacking into users’ data and keeping them from retrieving it unless a ransom is paid. Even after the payment is made, attackers may not release the data. They instead keep extorting more money.
Data breaches
Data breach targets personally identifiable data, including contact information, social security numbers, birth dates, contact information, and other personal data, intellectual property, health information, IT security data, and legal information.
Cybersecurity in the online gaming industry
The Indian gaming industry is expected to grow to $5 billion in 2025 from $2.8 billion in 2022, growing at a 28-30% CAGR. Cyberattacks are a danger to online gaming. When gamers gamble on mobile casinos and other online gambling platforms, cybercriminals can use the chat function to collect sensitive data, including their name, house address, and phone number, leading to identity theft.
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Online gamers may also face other cybersecurity risks, like malware, account takeover, doxing and swatting, spyware, data breaches, DDoS attacks, cross-site scripting, phishing emails, and cyberbullying. Protecting user data and providing a safe gaming environment reduces the effects of online fraud and cyberattacks, helping sustain the online gaming industry.
Cybersecurity in the banking industry
The beginning of Covid-19 led to the banking sector’s digitalization, with back-end and front-end operations becoming digital. This growing technology has resulted in persistent cyberattacks and attackers using more sophisticated means to find their victims for their malicious attacks on financial and banking systems’ sensitive information. Identity theft, phishing, large-scale anti-fraud bypass, employee threats, ATM malware, and ransomware are cyber threat types facing the banking system.
Cybersecurity in the banking sector is essential for protecting privacy and data, preventing data breaches, and avoiding costly, stressful, and time-consuming data breach recovery efforts. Assessing and monitoring cloud security, establishing strict access management policies, creating a disaster recovery plan, instituting cyber training, encrypting your data, and improving employee awareness can help lower cybersecurity threats in the banking industry.
Cybersecurity in the E-commerce industry
Covid-19 significantly contributed to most consumers embracing e-commerce. While this contributed to E-commerce industry growth, it also resulted in more cybercrime intent on exploiting and disrupting the segment’s growth. Point-of-sale attacks  give cybercriminals easy access to sensitive financial and personal data.
Whether it’s a website attack, database hacks, or POS intrusion, e-commerce stores and their clients are vulnerable to advanced attacks. Data encryption and firewalls can help e-commerce retailers safeguard critical customer data.
Best practices and recommendations for cybersecurity
Use strong passwords
Using weak or the same password in several accounts compromises your accounts’ security. create strong passwords and change them regularly, and never use the same password for multiple accounts.
Implement multi-factor authentication (MFA)
MFA requires using two or more verification elements to access resources like VPNs, online accounts, and applications. It could be a physical hardware key or thumbprint. It boosts your security through users identifying themselves using an additional verification requirement besides a password and username.
Update software
Regular software updates are an excellent way to keep your software updated to ensure data breaches don’t occur. They mend your system’s security flaws and also protect your data.
Install anti-viruses and firewalls
Installing firewalls and anti-virus software enables your system to defend itself against cyberattacks. Firewalls use one or more methods like packet filtering, circuit level, proxy, or stateful inspection to control the traffic going in and out of your network. Anti-virus softwares prevents, destroys, and detects malware and viruses.
