In comparison to 2019, India witnessed a nearly 300 per cent spike in cyber-attacks in 2020, to 1158208 cyber-attacks in the last year from 394499 cases in 2019
A mechanism is being readied to combat any cyber-attacks that China launches on India to disrupt the systems, General Bipin Rawat, Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) said at an event on Wednesday.
Speaking at the Vivekananda International Foundation on shaping the armed forces to meet the likely current and future challenges, General Rawat said, “We may not be able to fully catch up with China. So we are trying to develop some kind of a relationship with the western nations and see how better we can get some support from them, during peace time at least, which will help us overcome this deficiency”.
Rawat said, as India was slow to adopt cyber warfare capabilities, which has led to the gaps, China has the first movers advantage.
“The biggest differential lies in the cyber field. We know that China is capable of launching cyber-attacks on us and it can disrupt a large number of systems”, he said.
In comparison to 2019, India witnessed a nearly 300 per cent spike in cyber-attacks in 2020, to 1158208 cyber-attacks in the last year from 394499 cases in 2019, which is alarming for the government, according to the official data presented in the Parliament.
“What we are trying to do is create a system which will ensure cyber defence. We have been able to create a cyber-agency within the armed forces and each service also has its own cyber-agency, so that even if we come under cyber-attacks, the downtime of the attack doesn’t last long”, said Rawat.
The CDS said while China has a lead in this respect, India is evolving its technologies to match up.
“While we are trying to create firewalls for cyber-attacks, someone may break through them. We are trying see how long your systems will be down and how will you be able to operate through the phase of cyber-attacks that we have been put through. That is what we are seriously looking at”.
The CDS said that integrating the resources of the three services, is the key for combating such attacks. “The Navy is far ahead of the Army and the Air Force in the way it has imbibed technology”, he said.
Rawat, on other security challenges said that India faces multiple and varied security threats and challenges across the full spectrum of conflict – from proxy war to hybrid to non-contact, conventional and collusive wars under a nuclear overhang.
“There is an emergent need to develop a vision for the region. However, one must be careful to not ‘bite more than one can chew’. The vision for the region or even our global vision must be intrinsically linked to our national interests, which are directly linked to national security”, said the CDS.
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