India entered the top 10 of a global cybersecurity ranking of countries, ahead of China at No.33, and Pakistan at No.79. India improved its ranking from 47 to 10 in the United Nation’s ITU Global Cybersecurity Agenda (GCA). The US is ranked first, followed by the UK.
“It is great news and an acknowledgement of multiple initiatives that we have taken along with CERT (Cyber Emergency Response Team),’’ said India’s National Cyber Security Coordinator (NCSC) Rajesh Pant.
While giving credit to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for acknowledging the importance of cybersecurity in his Independence Day speech last year, Pant also highlighted other measures: “We have a national cybersecurity strategy that is awaiting cabinet nod and also recently operationalized the trusted source policy that asks all telecom companies to declare where they source their equipment.’’
The rankings come at a time when the government has been dealing with several instances of cross-border cyber attacks. In February, HT reported several instances in which government domain email addresses were used to launch cyber attacks and the discovery of critical vulnerabilities in several government servers, which could have given attackers access deep into sensitive networks.
The International Telecommunications Union, or ITU, which is a specialised agency under the UN, said in the report that the ranking is based on four pillars: legal measures, technical measures, capacity building measures and organizational measures. The latest report is the fourth one in the series. “This rating doesn’t reflect the reality of India’s poor cybersecurity situation,’’ said Ramanjit Chima of Access Now.
“India has not yet published its national cybersecurity strategy due for over a decade and has not set clear cybersecurity responsibilities within the different parts of the government despite two years of discussions. It is also facing increased cross-border cyber attacks and data breaches every month and is being asked for its position on global cyber policy issues. India can be a global leader but isn’t there yet,’’ he added.
