India sets ball rolling on new cyber security strategy to counter emerging threats

India is preparing for a new National Cyber Security Strategy 2020 (NCSS 2020). This comes weeks after Israeli firm NSO allegedly hacked Facebook-owned chat app WhatsApp.

Citing a change in technology and nature of threats online, the Indian government has constituted a task force to formulate NCSS 2020 for a time period of five years, applicable till 2025.

“The present cyber threat landscape poses significant challenges due to rapid technological developments such as cloud computing, artificial intelligence, internet of things, 5G, etc,” said the statement on the NCSS website.

Among other things, the consultation seeks to address misuse of social media platforms, access to data stored overseas and law enforcement in cyberspace.

“New challenges include data protection/privacy, law enforcement in evolving cyberspace, access to data stored overseas, misuse of social media platforms, international cooperation on cybercrime & cyber terrorism, and so on. Threats from organised cybercriminal groups, technological cold wars, and increasing state sponsored cyber-attacks have also emerged,” said the statement.

In August, National Cybersecurity Coordinator Lt Gen Rajesh Pant had stated that coordination among different agencies handling cyber-related aspects, promoting awareness among individuals, businesses and government will be included under NCSS 2020.

The previous National Cyber Security Policy was adopted in 2013, which is now inadequate for the risks at hand.

The government has sought stakeholder submissions by December 31.

Separately, the Indian government is also pushing for the traceability of rouge messages on Facebook-owned messaging service WhatsApp.