Since the COVID -19, The situation has been worse all over the world. The global pandemic has led to an increase in cybercrimes in the last one year. The Ministry of Home Affairs’ National Cybercrime Reporting Portal www.cybercrime.gov.in has claimed that over four lakh cyber threat complaints are registered in less than a year.
In an event on cybersecurity organized by Internet and Mobile Association of India (IMAI), experts highlighted that there is an increase in Cyber attacks in India by 2000% during COVID – 19. During the event, they pointed out that almost every sector in India has been breached since all these sectors are inter connected. They also added that we were using ASL or DSL from home and none of these are secure. Thus making it easy for the attackers to gain access, causing financial fraud or threat to national security.
Dr. Gulshan Rai, India’s first Cybersecurity Coordinator, highlighted that “although 90% of attacks are traditional in nature like phishing, malware, etc, however worrying is the rise in the number of targeted attacks (which accounts for 9% currently).”
Majority of the Indian organisations are understaffed. They are struggling with the shortage of skilled cybersecurity professionals. This is considered to be the biggest challenge in our country. The shortage of skilled cybersecurity professionals in India is 9% higher than the global average. The experts believe that Artificial Intelligence combined with the skilled cybersecurity professionals is the most effective way to prevent this growing cyber attacks