1,400 attacks... and counting

MOLE'S EYE VIEW

India is under attack from rogue elements within and outside the country, not only in its physical space (think Mumbai), but in cyberspace too. Extensions ".co.in" and ".gov.in" are special targets of hack-attacks, whose number, and intensity, is increasing at a worrying pace.

Against 1,500 intrusions all of last year, 1,400 intrusions have already been recorded in the first six months of this year, communications and infotech minister Dayanidhi Maran said at a recent seminar on cybercrime.

Over half the attacks on India's territory in cyberspace originate from outside the country and they "are largely being noticed from the US, China, Pakistan and the Middle East", he said.

Not surprising, since this is one way of "showing the weakness of a sovereign power," says supreme court advocate and cyber law expert Pavan Duggal, who ranks India's cyber security measures on a lowly "two to three" on a scale of 10.

Now here is the worry. If hackers deface sites, they do leave a bad taste in the mouth, but there is no monetary loss.

As Indian economy goes online (Internet users number about 40 million today), and as e-governance initiatives fructify, these attacks could mean more than a mere eyesore.

"If you are remotely managing your power plant, the power plant can be shut down due to a network intrusion," says an industry official.

An Indian computer emergency response team, dubbed CERT-IN, is in place to respond to cyber attacks and to "enhance the security of India's communications and information infrastructure".

However, security policies have to be implemented, and regularly updated, by individual government or corporate entities. Many shy away from the expense and effort required.

"I think we need to do much more," says Amitabh Singhal, the founder member of the Internet Service Providers Association and a board member of NIXI or the National Internet Exchange of India, which is the registry for the ".in" domain. Now here is the irony about typical security situations: we need to do much more, but whatever we do, it is probably not going to be enough!