Presently, all across the world, the changes in military doctrines favoring the need to raise cyber commands reflect a shift in strategies, which include building deterrence in cyberspace. Moreover, the area of influence of cybersecurity extends far beyond military domains to cover all aspects of a nation’s governance, economy, and welfare.
India ranks 3rd in terms of the highest number of internet users in the world after the USA and China, but still, India’s cybersecurity architecture is in a nascent approach.
This can be reflected by a report published in the New York Times that highlighted the possibility that the power outage in Mumbai, 2020, could have been the result of an attack by a Chinese state-sponsored group.
Therefore, given the criticality of cyberspace in the military, governance, and economic domain there is a need for a comprehensive cybersecurity doctrine in India.
Challenges in India’s Cyber Security Architecture
False Flag Attacks
The documents released by WikiLeaks show that groups such as the Central Intelligence Agency’s UMBRAGE project have advanced capabilities of misdirecting attribution to another nation-state (“false flag attacks”) by leaving behind false “fingerprints” for investigators to find.
Problems With ‘All of Government Approach’
While seeking to create an ‘all of government’ approach to countering and mitigating cybersecurity threats at the national level, has also resulted in concerns around effective coordination, overlapping responsibilities, and lack of clear institutional boundaries and accountability.
India lacks indigenization in hardware as well as software cybersecurity tools. This makes India’s cyberspace vulnerable to cyberattacks motivated by state and non-state actors.
Absence of a Credible Cyber Deterrence Strategy
Further, the absence of a credible cyber deterrence strategy means that states and non-state actors alike remain incentivized to undertake low-scale cyber operations for a variety of purposes — espionage, cybercrime, and even the disruption of critical information infrastructure.CGPCS Notes brings Prelims and Mains programs for CGPCS Prelims and CGPCS Mains Exam preparation. Various Programs initiated by CGPCS Notes are as follows:-