As Indian enterprises embrace rapid digital transformation, they face escalating cyber threats. High-profile incidents, such as the AIIMS Delhi ransomware attack and WazirX’s $230 million theft, underscore the growing risks. With cybercrime costs surging globally, Indian businesses must enhance their cybersecurity strategies to safeguard against these increasing threats.
Digital transformation is at its zenith in today's interconnected world, bringing both remarkable benefits and notable side effects. Indian enterprises are no exception. In fact, in many areas, Indian businesses are leading the charge with their innovative approaches and solutions, setting new benchmarks in the process. From e-commerce giants to burgeoning startups, companies are embracing technology like never before. However, this rapid digitization also brings a growing threat: cybercrime.
Like their global counterparts, Indian enterprises across various industries have been increasingly targeted by cyberattacks, resulting in significant financial and reputational damage. Notably, the AIIMS Delhi ransomware attack in February 2023 crippled the hospital’s servers, severely disrupting critical healthcare services. In another instance, international attackers attempted to sabotage the proceedings of the 2023 G20 Summit. More recently, a cyberattack on the cryptocurrency exchange WazirX saw threat actors siphon off $230 million, accounting for more than half of its capital.
Millions Going Down the Drain
These incidents are part of a growing list of cyberattacks that have forced organizations to incur millions of dollars in losses. According to the Internet Crime Report, cybercrime-related losses amounted to $12.5 billion in 2023, marking a $2 billion increase year-over-year and more than triple the amount recorded in 2019, despite the number of complaints having less than doubled over the same period.
The problem is far from abating. Cybersecurity Ventures projects that global cybercrime costs will grow by 15 percent annually over the next five years, reaching $10.5 trillion by 2025, up from $3 trillion in 2015. This represents the greatest transfer of economic wealth in history, undermines incentives for innovation and investment, exceeds the annual damage inflicted by natural disasters, and will be more profitable than the global trade of all major illegal drugs combined. “As organizations accelerate their adoption of cloud services to drive innovation, they also expand their attack surface and cloud breaches become more common. According to the CrowdStrike 2024 Global Threat Report, cloud intrusions increased by 75% year-over-year (YoY),” notes Nitin Varma, Managing Director, India and SAARC, CrowdStrike.
In India, the surge in cybercrime is alarming, with phishing attacks, card frauds, and UPI payment frauds affecting individuals across all cities and demographics. Phishing scams are rampant, targeting unsuspecting users. Ransomware attacks, where criminals lock down data and demand payment for its release, are increasingly causing significant financial disruptions. “With India being the most targeted country globally, facing 13.7% of all cyber incidents, the threat landscape is both diverse and intense,” says Raj Sivaraju, President, APAC, Arete, quoting the 2022 Global Risk Survey.
Indians lost over Rs 1,750 crore to cybercriminals in the first four months of 2024, with more than 740,000 cybercrime complaints registered on the National Cybercrime Reporting Portal run by the Ministry of Home Affairs between January and April 2024. According to the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C), an average of 7,000 cybercrime complaints were registered per day in May 2024, reflecting a 113.7% increase from 2021 to 2023 and a 60.9% rise from 2022 to 2023. Notably, 85% of these complaints were related to financial online frauds.
The cyber threats are amplified by unique challenges faced by Indian enterprises. A vast and diverse population creates a wider attack surface for cybercriminals. The rapid adoption of new technologies, often without adequate security protocols in place, further increases vulnerability.
Effectively managing the growing complexity of the cyber threat landscape
Cyber threat landscape is growing in complexity as CIOs often struggle to effectively manage the application and infrastructure landscape in their organizations. “The more tools organizations use that were never designed to work together, the more difficult they are to operate as a cohesive security stack, and the harder it is to match the speed of the adversary.,” says Nitin Varma of CrowdStrike. “Organizations must adopt comprehensive threat intelligence programs and platform-based approaches to manage the complexity of today’s threat landscape,” Nitin Varma then suggests. He also stresses on the need of leveraging AI to enhance threat detection and response while consolidating point products is crucial.
While emphasizing on the role of AI in revolutionizing cybersecurity, Swapna Bapat, Vice President, Product Management, Palo Alto Networks, brings to the focus the gap between the approaches adopted by attackers and organizations. She argues, “Attackers now exploit AI to scale attacks and innovate zero-day methods. There is a critical gap between how long attackers require to compromise new vulnerabilities and how long organizations take to address them.” To keep pace, a very high degree of cybersecurity automation is required. “Without such a high degree of automation, analysts would be overwhelmed by alerts, leading to fatigue and heightened cyberattack risks,” add Swapna Bapat, highlighting the quintessential role of automation in addressing modern-day threats.
Organizations can combat the complex cyber threat landscape by adopting a layered approach: proactive threat intel, user awareness training, security automation, continuous monitoring, and incident response planning. One aspect of this approach includes the adoption of strong exposure management practices. “Security programs that focus on strong exposure management practices enable organisations to understand cyber risk across the entire attack surface to make more effective business decisions,” agrees Nathan Wenzler, Chief Security Strategist, Tenable.
Building a successful cybersecurity strategy
In all entirety, building effective cyber strategy remains a critical step in making an organization resilient towards cyber threats. Having a cyber strategy that is built using global frameworks like NIST is said to be far more effective. “A crucial first step is understanding the organization's risk profile through thorough asset assessment and threat evaluation. This foundation helps with the development of robust policies and procedures that guide data protection, access control and incident response,” says Ravindra Baviskar, Director - Sales Engineering, Sophos India.
Effective cybersecurity begins with identifying and assessing risks across all assets, including servers, workstations, web applications, cloud infrastructure, code repositories, containers, public-facing assets, credentials, and operational technology devices. Full visibility is crucial for understanding the security state of these assets. According to Tenable CSO, after achieving full visibility, organisations must prioritise risks. While many use CVSS scores for basic vulnerability management, these scores do not accurately reflect real-world exploitability from threat actors. “Organisations need unified solutions to identify misconfigurations, code flaws, and other exposures while understanding the technical risk between different assets and how these risks impact the financial, legal and reputational well-being of the organisation,” says Nathan Wenzler of Tenable.
Organizations can tackle the complex threat landscape with a consolidated platform approach. “The platform approach that includes consolidation should encompass detection and response from a defensive perspective and incorporate offensive, defensive, and compliance strategies. Such an integrated approach will create a proactive cybersecurity ecosystem, effectively addressing complex threats,” adds Jaydeep Ruparelia, CEO, Infopercept Consulting, while vouching for the consolidation of security strategies.
“With a barrage of security threats being encountered on an everyday basis, organizations need to build a successful cybersecurity strategy,” notes Anurag Singh, Director - Advanced Solutions, Ingram Micro India.
As per Anurag, here are the key considerations for building a robust cyber strategy:
Protecting: Protect your infrastructure from any kind of security threats.
Promoting: Promoting a strong awareness within the organization about the looming cyber security threats and best practices to safeguard ourselves from these threats.
Preserving: Preserving the data and the users against any breach or cyber threats.
Advancing: Keeping an updated system and infrastructure.
Investing in employee education/awareness
Well-informed employees are better equipped to identify potential threats, such as phishing attempts, and understand the importance of robust security practices like strong password management. Hence, fostering a culture of security awareness helps organizations create a human firewall that complements technical safeguards. “Security awareness training is an essential tool for companies or organizations that want to effectively protect their data, reduce the number of human-related incidents, reduce the cost of the response. It also helps organisations ensure that their employees understand how to responsibly handle client data and safely navigate being online,” advises Jaydeep Singh, General Manager, India Region, Kaspersky, hinting at the long-term hidden benefits of employee awareness programs.
“Awareness is crucial in mitigating insider threats and unintentional breaches, significantly reducing the organization's overall risk profile,” agrees Ravindra Baviskar of Sophos India.
Even CrowdStrike expert also insists on the need of carefully-curated employee awareness programs covering emerging threats that include AI-enabled attacks. These programs will empower employees to recognize potential risks and take appropriate actions to protect organizational assets.
Human error is one of the biggest reasons behind many notable breaches. It is critical to address the human angle through adequate training and awareness drive. Fostering a culture of cyber security can boost an organizations cybersecurity manifold. “Many breaches occur due to human error, such as falling for phishing scams or using weak passwords. Regular training programs can help employees recognise potential threats, understand the importance of following security protocols, and adopt safe online practices. An informed and vigilant workforce is the first line of defence against cyberattacks,” interjects Pamela Ong, Sales Director - APAC at ESET.
Innovative approaches to stay ahead of threat actors
Innovative strategies to outpace threat actors include adopting a "zero trust" security model and implementing deception technology. Organizations are leveraging AI and machine learning for advanced threat detection and response. Participation in industry-specific threat information sharing groups is on the rise. To stay vigilant, CISOs should conduct regular risk assessments and penetration tests while staying informed about emerging threats, such as the predicted evolution of ransomware-as-a-service models in 2024. “Implementing automated response tools can help in quickly adapting to new threats. Regular red team exercises can test the effectiveness of current defenses against real-world scenarios,” says Raj Sivaraju of Arete.
Perhaps staying current on the latest tech such as AI/ML will boost organizational security. At least that is what Jaydeep Ruparelia of Infopercept Consulting believes. He suggests, “Currently, Generative AI (GenAI) and AI are two areas that can help CISOs mature these areas faster and more effectively. GenAI can automate many routine tasks, enhance detection and response, and be used in offensive security and compliance.”
But embedding security right at the start of the solution is one of the widely recognized approaches that CISOs need to adopt. “CISO should look at adopting secure-by-design for all software and hardware by integrating cybersecurity into each stage of the software development lifecycle. They should take the cyber immune strategy and implement solutions that allow companies to minimize the threat surface,” concurs Jaydeep Singh of Kaspersky.
The good news is that Indian enterprises can build a robust defense against cyber threats. Here's how:
1. Securing the Foundation: The first step is to fortify your IT infrastructure. Implement data encryption to safeguard sensitive information. Employ robust access controls that restrict access to authorized personnel. Regularly scan for vulnerabilities and patch them promptly.
2. The CISO: Leading the Charge: A dedicated Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) plays a critical role. The CISO leads the organization's cybersecurity efforts, developing strategies, managing resources, and fostering a culture of security awareness among employees. Educating employees on identifying phishing attempts and reporting suspicious activity is crucial.
3. Embracing New Technologies: Innovation doesn't have to be the enemy of security. Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) are revolutionizing cybersecurity. AI can analyze vast amounts of data to detect and predict cyberattacks in real-time. Machine learning algorithms can identify suspicious patterns and automate security responses.
4. Homegrown Solutions: India boasts a thriving cybersecurity industry. Many Indian companies are developing cutting-edge solutions. From advanced intrusion detection systems to next-generation firewalls, Indian businesses have access to a wealth of innovative tools to enhance their defenses.
5. Regulations and Compliance: The Indian government is playing an active role in promoting cybersecurity awareness and regulation. Initiatives like the Data Protection Bill are a step towards creating a secure digital ecosystem.
Building a secure digital future for Indian enterprises requires a multi-pronged approach. By combining best practices, embracing new technologies, and leveraging homegrown solutions, Indian businesses can confidently navigate the digital landscape, building a strong defense against cyber threats.
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