In the field of innovation, both the private and public sectors play critical roles. By making internet-based services and online usage more accessible. People, small businesses, and even the government are using digital technology to make goods, make decisions, and deliver services quickly as a result of innovation in the information and communication technology (ICT) sector. Technology is transforming businesses and all aspects of society. The digital economy refers to activities such as selling and buying, as well as access to all services via internet-connected devices. China's e-commerce industry is well established. By launching programs such as Aadhaar, e-locker, design, JAMtrinity, and BHIM. These programs are assisting India in its goal of broadening its horizon in terms of the digital economy.
Aadhaar
Aadhaar is one of digital India's most successful initiatives. More than a million Indian citizens now have a sense of identity as a result of this. Aadhaar is a national biometric system that provides Indians with biometric identity. The Aadhaar-enabled payment system is bringing Indian society together and empowering it. Aadhaar was first implemented in 2009. It has a significant impact on India's digital economy. This program has nearly 1.2 billion people enrolled, making it the largest identity program. This one-of-a-kind digital identity system combines the best technologies to create a system that generates unique numbers based on biometric information collected from people via iris scans and fingerprints. This biometric identity system has provided many people with identities as well as access to banking systems for millions of people who were previously excluded from the formal economy
Rapidly growing e-commerce Industry
Because of technological advancements in the ICT sector, India's e-commerce industry is rapidly expanding. The e-commerce industry has a direct impact on all types of businesses, from small to medium-sized. The anticipated growth of e-commerce By 2026, the Indian e-commerce industry will be worth US$. The rapidly expanding e-commerce industry is creating more job opportunities and assisting millions of businesses to thrive. Because the e-commerce industry is assisting in the closing of gaps between manufacturers and customers.
How it will affect by cyber-Attack?
Being the second largest consumer of smart devices and a country with one of the largest bases of internet consumers, India continues to remain a sitting duck, vulnerable to several national and international cyber-attacks. Some of the key reasons for this vulnerability can be listed:
Outdated systems and processes: While we do enjoy smart personal devices, a large part of corporate and business technology systems continue to depend on outdated or legacy infrastructure, with poor or inadequate cyber security protection.
Accelerated digital adoption, over a short span of time: The widespread digital adoption across public and private sectors, has left little or no time for the proper development of a backend cyber security infrastructure, putting a large amount of data at risk
Limited understanding of cyber security: The understanding of cyber security and its prevention continues to be limited to the installation of antivirus and malware protection software on individual computers/ devices. Even as cyber crimes are getting more and more sophisticated, the lack of understanding among the end user continues to aid in successful cyber-attack instances.
Fragmented and unorganized cyber security infrastructure: This is a largely unorganized and fragmented sector of cyber-security service providers and entrepreneurs. More so, the lack of a stringent legal framework for identifying and taking cyber criminals to the task is hampered, by the lack of strong cyber security laws
Even as we are trying to deal with the threats, the type of cyber-attacks is also evolving, creating a more complex and advanced set of threats. These include:
Cloud vulnerability: Even as an increasing number of businesses adopt cloud computing, data security concerns continue to rise. As per Oracle’s cloud threat report 2019, cloud vulnerability continues to remain the highest cyber security challenge in the near future. While larger third-party players like Amazon and Google are investing heavily in cloud security, smaller organizations and businesses that are using independent cloud services, are skeptical about investing in cloud security and thus remain vulnerable to threats like a data breach, account hijacking, malicious internal threats, and even DDOS attacks.
Social engineering and phishing attacks: This implies manipulating and leading unsuspecting victims to perform actions or divulge information, without the knowledge of the consequences. Baiting, Scareware, Pretexting, etc., are some of the most common forms of Social engineering attacks. Phishing continues to be one of the most widespread forms of social engineering attacks that involves fraudulently obtaining sensitive data like card and bank details, personal information, etc., which is then used to make fraudulent transactions. The rise of e-commerce has further increased instances of Social Engineering attacks and it is on a rise.
Attacks using emerging technology: Machine Learning, AI, and connected devices use a large amount of crowd-sourced data and information using information from social media and apps, like satisfaction ratings, brand preferences, spending patterns, browsing histories, etc., making them a preferred target for cybercriminals. Machine learning poisoning, a method to inject instructions into a system to gain insights and information and even control the outcome, is one of the modern security breach methods targeting sophisticated systems. AI fuzzing, another tool primarily used to detect, identify and fix cyber-attack vulnerabilities in a system, can also be used by fraudsters to control and automate attacks.
Data breaches, malware, and ransomware: While these are some of the most easily executed threats, they also continue to be the most common and widely used threats among cybercriminals. In the age of AI, ML, VR, and connected devices, Data is the new currency. Data breaches thus remain the priority target for most fraudsters. Malware and ransomware have caused a lot of trouble recently when working from home rendering official IT systems vulnerable due to access from unsecured home servers. Infecting a computer with malware or ransomware which then encrypts and makes the data unavailable for the user until the ransom is paid, is nothing less than a bank heist!
While each of the above poses a grave threat, an efficient and strategic cyber security infrastructure can help prevent these instances and save the government, businesses, and individuals a lot of time, effort, and money. Investing in robust cybersecurity that offers an end-to-end security ecosystem for individual devices and networks to reliable data back-ups, regular third-party risk assessment, and strong multifactor authentication mechanisms need to be put in place. On a mass level, the first step would be a strong legal framework for handling cybercrime, followed by a widespread awareness campaign about the significance of cybersecurity and why businesses need to take it seriously. Together, these unwarranted and fraudulent interferences can be handled, to make India a truly robust digital superpower.
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