Cyber Security

Given India’s dependence on imports for 90 per cent of its telecom equipment, the decision to allow Huawei to bid for 5G should be in line with the national interest, rather than taking sides and constraining options.

Every time a cyber security organisation comes out with a decrypter to counter the effect of GandCrab, a brand new version of the ransomware is generated by effecting a small fix in the code.

A slight push in the right direction would be much more productive and efficient, such as treating telecommunications as a utility rather than a market, and building innovation and IPR ecosystems rather than incentivizing licensed production.

India, the second largest smartphone market in the world, needs to encourage and incentivise its ICT industry to not only boost ‘Skill India’ and ‘Make in India’ initiatives but also provide cyber autonomy to its critical cyber assets.

For a global build-up of cybersecurity, capacity building needs to be given much more importance than it has received till date.

The BIMSTEC region offers tremendous opportunities in the field of cyber space. However, the full scope of digital dividend can only be harnessed if the countries of the region are able to get their act together and work as a team at the earliest.

Paris Call could be seen as a positive step towards finding a middle path between Western democracies and authoritarian regimes on the issue of cyber governance.

One understands that long term benefits of Aadhaar actually outweighs many concerns. However, adequate norms need to be laid down from collection to retention of biometric data, in addition to formulating strong data protection and privacy laws.

Mega data breaches of user’s private digital data in the last two years has drawn the world’s attention towards protection, safe custody and management of this extremely valuable commodity.

The UNGGE process is the least bad option to keep open channels and maintain continued focus on securing cyberspace.