CYBER POLICY
North Korea that targeted the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant and the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) in 2019. Earlier this week, security consultants reported finding a China-backed operation to target India’s electricity grid.
HT reported last month 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 and underscores the need for the country’s digital infrastructure to be made more secure.
The government has not commented on the role of any nation-state in any of the incidents cited above.
NCSS 2021 is likely to continue with the stance on not attributing threats from a particular country. “We have not named any country,” said an official quoted above. “However, we do recognise that there are both state and non-state actors that are looking to target us in the cybersphere and along with them you have statebacked actors, hacktivists and cyber mercenaries.”
The threat landscape, this official added, “has really exploded” with attacks that have now “grown in scope and state sophistication”. “They have all come into play and they are targeting our infrastructure.”
The paper has been prepared after consultations hosted by the Cyber Security Coordinator’s office. While it does not go into solutions, it outlines the government’s threat perception in the domain. India’s approach is expected to be along the lines of the strategy documents released by countries such as the US and the UK.
The UK, for instance, recognises state-sponsored threats as “a small number of hostile foreign threat actors [that] have developed and deployed offensive cyber capabilities, including destructive ones”. The UK’S strategy document adds: “These capabilities threaten the security of the UK’S critical national infrastructure and industrial control systems. Some states may use these capabilities in contravention of international law in the belief that they can do so with relative impunity.”