The central government’s ambitious plans of Digital India and Niti Aayog may open up greener pastures for cyber criminals, an industry expert said.
Logo of NITI Aayog which replaced the Planning Commission in India
According to R. Vittal Raj, international vice president of Information Systems Audit and Control Association (ISACA), an organisation focused on IT governance, the nation’s new initiatives on the digital front may open up newer loopholes in the IT system which hackers and possible terrorists may exploit.
“Cyber-crime is on the rise and with the government determined of it’s plans with the Niti Aayog and Smart Cities plan, criminals will find new opportunities”, he said.
He said although the Niti Aayog may not provide all online facilities to the end-user, any bank account nowadays is linked online at the back-end which hackers may exploit.
Indian Prime Minister at an event speaking about the NITI Aayog and Planning Commission (Image Courtesy - Mint)
“It is not that hackers are predicted to attack particular accounts. They may opt for salami attack at the clearance house from where a miniscule part of each transaction can be routed to the hacker’s account”, he said adding that it often goes undetected.
However, the nature or types of the attacks are hard to predict at this stage but botnets, which spans across a hacker controlled network is a likely contender.
“When we look at more of digital India coming in… we are looking at a scenario when the hacker will actually be very pleased”, he said.
Indian Finance Minister Arun Jaitley announcing the NITI Aayog (Image Courtesy - IANS)
The IT trainer said once a hacker is able to exploit the shortcomings in a network in a smart-city, it will lead to absolute chaos which will disrupt daily life severely.
He reasoned that as infrastructure in smart cities is based on a network, close monitoring and apt security needs to be provisioned beforehand to make it a success in India.
According to the association, the global market of connected devices is set to exceed USD 7 trillion by 2020 and mobile connections is expected to rise from 7.4 billion in 2014 to 10 billion by 2020.
Raj said today’s world comprises of connected devices and with the dawn of the e-age, organisations and governments are exposed to newer breeds of threat which was never heard of or predicted.
“The online world is anonymous where one can veil his identity and co-operate with fellow criminals across borders to launch an attack… the entire system is automated now”, the cyber-security expert noted.
“A terrorist will love a situation where he is able to impact actual physical life by digital means… even the best missile systems in the world is prone to attacks from cyber-criminals”, he added.
“Talks are on at the global level but it is not easy… the question is how to monitor the international forum”, Raj concluded.
The central government’s ambitious plans of Digital India and Niti Aayog may open up greener pastures for cyber criminals, an industry expert said.
However, the situation may become far more complex as national security threats may open up as well.
As cyber-warfare continues to gain importance with missile-defence programmes, drones and several other projects under implementation, Raj said it will take time for nations across the globe to arrive at a consensus to handle national security threats.
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