Why cyber security is critical for Digital India

“I dream of a Digital India where cyber security becomes an integral part of our national security... The world is so worried about cyber security. One click can change a lot of things,” said Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the launch of Digital India Week on July 1, 2015.

These words could not have come at a more appropriate time, for national security, enterprise security and individual privacy were never at risk as they are now with the world going more digital every passing day. This is precisely why security needs to be at the heart of the Digital India vision.

The Digital India program envisions the creation of a digitally empowered economy and e-governance and services on demand to improve access of information as well as resources for citizens. It is important to understand that the generation of data is directly proportional to the number of people using a particular service, which means that more the adoption of services from the Digital India umbrella, more will be the data generated. For instance, the Aadhar (UID) initiative now stores biometric data of over 73 crore citizens. Any security breach in the initiative will raise major concerns about privacy and security of confidential data.

India currently has 319 million internet users and mobile internet users are projected to be in excess of 213 million by the end of 2015. This is a massive percentage of the internet user base. In fact, 41% of e-commerce sales happen on the mobile. Now consider these statistics in the light of a recent report that discussed how Android phones can be hacked with a single text message. In the context of Digital India, we anticipate that a majority of citizens will be accessing their e-government services via an ultra-mobile computing device which is why mobile security needs to be taken very seriously.

It is a well-known truism that the world over that the young embrace and adopt newer technology of almost any kind faster and India is no different. A recent study called Teens and Technology 2014, conducted by Intel's security arm McAfee, examined the online behaviour and social networking habits of Indian tweens (8-12 years) and teens (13-17 years).  As many as 92% of the Indian youth was found to have shared private information online despite being aware that this is risky. 53% of youngsters trust the virtual world and interact with strangers, and as many as 51% of those polled did not care about their online privacy at all, according to the report. Lack of online safety leads to things like cyberbullying, which has surfaced with alarming figures. According to the report, two out of three polled youngsters had some experience with cyberbullying and an overwhelming number said they would not know what to do if they were harassed online. The median age of our country is 27 years, and therefore it is critical that cyber security is integrated tightly into the digital literacy training that is imparted to Indian citizens.

It is for all the above reasons that we at Intel believe that India needs a properly structured and well thought through security and cyber wellness plan that’s integral to the Digital India vision. Security and cyber wellness need to be addressed at the policy and architecture level as the government and industry work towards designing solutions and building the country’s digital infrastructure. Security and data privacy need to be the foundation of all process flows that get designed for Digital India. The citizenry at large needs to be educated about the do’s and don’ts of security as part of the digital literacy training that’s imparted to make one person per house hold e-literate. Also, in the back-end, a strong, intelligent and solid detection system needs to be in place that can identify any potential threats and trigger the appropriate corrective action.

Cyber security and wellness is an area where strong Public Private Partnerships can benefit the country. Intel has always been a strong believer of the PPP model and is working very closely with the government in the proliferation of digital literacy in the country and most recently we’ve also begun working on creating awareness on cyber security and wellness In line with this, Intel launched the Digital Wellness Online Challenge along with the National e-Governance Division during the ‘Digital India Week’ – a quiz aimed at sensitising and creating a culture of digital wellness amongst children from classes 6 to 12 by promoting awareness on the benefits and the threats of Internet-based interactions and reached over a million kids in just one week. Additionally, Intel is relentlessly pushing the boundaries of hardware and software innovation to provide pervasive security and identity protection for individuals and businesses on all computing devices, and to supply industry-leading security platforms and solutions.

The implementation of a secure Digital India will need to adopt an end to end approach like never before. As a nation, we shouldn’t let security concerns undermine the growth potential of India, instead, security has to help create a new and bold Digital India.

The author is Vice President, Sales and Marketing Group and Managing Director, Intel South Asia. She currently chairs the IT Committee at the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI).