Context:
During a webinar organised by The Hindu and Fortuner, a cybersecurity company, panellists stressed the significance of personal and organisational online security.
Relevance:
GS III: Cyber Security, Challenges to Internal Security Through Communication Networks
Dimensions of the Article:
- Cyber Attack and Cyber Security
- Suggestions by experts on Cybersecurity
- Significant development in Digital Payment security
- Way Forward
Cyber Attack and Cyber Security:
- Cyber Attack: A cyberattackis a malicious and deliberate attempt by an individual or organization to breach the information system of another individual or organization.
- Usually, the attacker seeks some type of benefit from disrupting the victim’s network.
- Common types of cyber attacks:
- Malware,
- Phishing,
- Man-in-the-middle attack ,
- Denial-of-service attack ,
- SQL injection ,
- Zero-day exploit ,
- DNS Tunneling and so on.
- Cyber security: It is the application of technologies, processes and controls to protect systems, networks, programs, devices and data from cyber attacks.
- Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In):
- It is the national nodal agency for responding to computer security incidents as and when they occur.
- CERT-In was established in 2004 as a functional organization of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology.
Suggestions by experts on Cybersecurity:
- They stressed on the need for Internet users to train themselves on the best practices of cybersecurity and follow dos and don’ts to ensure a safe digital economy.
- They reiterated that user awareness would help with digital transformations in future.
- An improved awareness about the use of technology with responsibility, can enhance internet safety.
- There is a need for the organizations to train users on how to access data or how to use the network. Certain methods that organizations should often follow include:
- Training on authentication,
- Forcing users to change passwords often and
- Sending alerts before opening a link and so on.
- Compliance and security risk assessment are the important requirements to move forward.
- Users need to be well informed about security authentication methods like two factor authorisation and accessing an encrypted website.
Significant development in Digital Payment security:
- The guideline on digital payment security has undergone a massive transformation.
- These rules not only secure the payment transactions or applications used, but also the point of sale devices, having proper encryption, decryption mechanisms on your point of sales devices and ATMs.
Way Forward:
- Cyber Insurance that is recently coming up in the financial services industry should be stressed to ensure reasonable coverage for people falling prey to these tactics.
- Awareness before and during the onboarding of customers must happen.
- However, it is the law enforcement agencies that play a significant role in minimise Cyber crimes.
- A cohesive effort is needed to contain these frauds.
-Source: The Hindu
