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Cyber attacks in India increased, but no new law on cybersecurity

Cyber attacks in india 2021

The government has informed the Lok Sabha that the number of cyber attacks in India has increased since 2018. The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) revealed some data while responding to an unstarred question from MP B.B. Patil.

The government also acknowledged that adversaries are launching cyber attacks from foreign soil.

Attacks Originating from Foreign Jurisdictions

In its reply, MeitY revealed that since 2018, there has been an increase in the number of cyber attacks. Further, CERT-In’s analysis determined that attacks on Indian websites originated from jurisdictions located out of India. According to CERT-In’s reporting, the number of cyber attacks each year is as follows:

Year No. of Websites Hacked
201817,560
201924,768
202026,121
2021 (till October)25,870
Source: Lok Sabha

Also read: What is Computer Emergency Response Team- India (CERT-In)

The response added that the origin of attacks belonged to various countries including Algeria, Brazil, China, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Netherlands, North Korea, Pakistan, Russia, Serbia, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Tunisia, Turkey, USA, Vietnam, etc.

However, the response also remarked that attackers are using masquerading techniques and hidden servers to hide the identity of actual systems from which they are launching attacks.

Cyber Crisis Management Plan

Besides the data on cyber attacks, the government also revealed that it has:

No Plans for a new Cyber Security Law

In a separate reply to an unstarred question put up by MP A. Raja, MeitY said that there is no proposal for a stand-alone law for cybersecurity.

It is pertinent to note that India does not have a special law to deal with cybersecurity. Although different provisions of the Information Technology Act, Information Technology Rules touch upon the subject, they are neither comprehensive nor up-to-date. The entire policy is scattered, with different sectoral regulators issuing separate guidelines.

Meanwhile, the UK has introduced a new cybersecurity bill to toughen standards and protect consumers from data breaches.


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