Digital Infrastructure Vs Cyber Threats
It is indeed not only a current fact but also an unavoidable need that no country or economy can survive and progress without having a resilient and robust digital infrastructure as a backbone to support its ecommerce, health, education, agriculture, manufacturing and all service sectors. However more a country has the exposure to digitalisation, more commensurate risk is manifested by virtue of a spurt in probability of cyber and hacking attacks as vulnerabilities or point of intrusion (PoI) multiplies. It is also reported in a study carried out by Huawei that artificial intelligence (AI) could almost double the value of global digital economy to $23 trillion by 2025 from $12.9 trillion in 2017. However, the worldwide scarcity of AI talent is a challenge and threat to this growth. So, a strong cyber security defence for digital infrastructure is a top priority for each country. Latest updates & serious incidents One of the reports in the Washington Post stated that Chinese government hackers have stolen highly-sensitive ‘top secret category’ files on underwater warfare. The files include the data that pertains to a supersonic anti-ship missile meant for the use on US submarines. Though the Chinese Embassy in the US has denied any such incident, it is reported that hackers targeted a contractor who works for the Naval Undersea Warfare Centre, a military entity based in Newport, Rhode Island. As reported, it was related to the project called ‘Sea Dragon.’ So, it is one of the most serious incidents of hacking so far as it has a potential that could bring two countries at loggerheads against each other with serious consequences. One can look at this incident as to what kind of pursuits/ measures shall be taken forward in times to come. People all over the world and now even in India are chugging data like never before. In just last three years, the use of data in India has increased fifteen times. It stood at 4GB per capita on 31 December 2017 which within a year rose to 5.5GB per capita by December 2018. Data has become cheaper and faster. India provides data globally at the cheapest rate and its expansion is fastest. Cyber threats have also increased in the same proportion as hackers do spend energy and resources to remain ahead to the counterparts who design improved defence processes and technologies to counter. About 500 million Indians were online in 2017 and the rate is growing exponentially. The Indian annual growth rate is about four times of the global average which is just 3%, even though India is still considerably underpenetrated compared to China and USA. Half of these online Indians usually make use of social media platforms while about 40% use e-mail and search. It is expected that e-commerce business in India shall become nearly $130-140 billion by the end of 2020. Indian digital economy itself is expected to be about $1 trillion by 2024, and hence, this volume of business shall also be at risk caused by cybercrimes and hacking attacks. In a sensational case, CBI booked unknown officials of the National Stock Exchange (NSE), Securities Exchange Board of India (SEBI), the promoter of a stock-trading company OPG Securities, and an economist and former consultant in the finance ministry for manipulating NSE software to get prior access to the markets after opening, ahead of other brokers by some seconds, to make gains in trade. It is just to make out how serious such incidents could be as it offers serious challenges to a market place globally that deals in trillions of dollars every day. The researchers have discovered a way to crash a person’s desktop or laptop simply by playing a sound through the device’s speakers. Such techniques could disrupt surveillance systems and sabotage medical devices. It has been published by a US and a Chinese university with details of their findings in a paper titled ‘Blue Note: How International Acoustic Interference Damages Availability and Integrity in Hard Disk Drives and Operating Systems.’ This discovery is the latest in a long line of methods available to attackers to crash devices remotely, which include symbols and messages sent by a text message or other messaging apps. There is a new crypto-jacking cyber warfare where the injected malware infiltrates target’s systems and converts computers into zombies. In doing so the primary intention of hackers is not to steal information but to mine crypto currencies. It was used against nearly 2000 computers of Aditya Birla Group. One of the symptoms noticed during the attack was of slowing down of the machines. The digital currency that was mined in this attack was Monero. This currency is virtually untraceable and believed to be more anonymous than Bitcoin, the best known crypto currency which experienced huge volatility amid regulatory crackdowns and strong interest from wealthy investors who chose to diversify beyond conventional securities and central bank-backed dominant fiat currencies like dollar and euro. A team of Dutch security researchers recently unveiled some new findings regarding ‘Rowhammer,’ an unintended side effect in DRAM chips that can be used to tamper with an entire computer which could be an effective way to hijack any smart phone. Though Google says that it is still a theoretical concept and not yet used in any attack but it is for sure that the smart phone manufacturers have to use a permanent fix for the same while incorporating them in designs. It is also a fact that the first native blockchain mobile phone by the HTC has been unveiled as HTC-Exodus. The Android powered Exodus device features a universal wallet and hardware support for all major crypto currencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum, and decentralized apps. So, one more new challenge is on the horizon. Though GDPR has been put in place by EU and Justice Krishna’s report on data protection in India is out but there is a lot that needs to be taken care of, and such laws are to be constantly improved and updated keeping pace with…