Beware! Cyber security attacks in India grew 194% in 2020

India saw an exponential rise in the cyber security incidents amid the coronavirus pandemic. Cyber security incidents jumped from 3,94,499 in 2019 to 11,58,208 in 2020, according to the data shared by the government.

The information tracked by the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) showed that such attacks saw a four-fold jump in 2018 and recorded an 89 per cent growth in 2019.  

The CERT-In is serving as a national agency for responding to cyber security incidents as per provisions of Section 70B of Information Technology Act, 2000.

It receives inputs from its situational awareness systems and threat intelligence sources about malware infections in networks of entities across sectors.

Whenever any incident comes to the notice of CERT-In, the agency issues alerts and issues advisories to the entities concerned and sectoral Computer Emergency Response Teams (CERTs) for remedial measures, said Kishan Reddy, Minister of State for Home Affairs of India, in a Lok Sabha reply.

Cyber security threats are becoming an emerging factor in an ever-expanding and technology-driven market. A PwC's Tech Security Lens report, released earlier in March this year, shows that the software industry has been the topmost targeted sector for the last three months, followed by IT services.

Further, the government has formulated a Cyber Crisis Management Plan for countering cyber-attacks. It is also operating the Cyber Swachhta Kendra (Botnet Cleaning and Malware Analysis Centre). The centre is providing detection of malicious programmes and free tools to remove the same. 

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